Forsaken
by FoxBlitz
Summary: Banished from Konoha, Naruto has disappeared from the world. Now thirteen years later, the Leaf find themselves on the verge of utter destruction.
1. Prologue Loss of Innocence

First time writer here! Got a pretty good idea for a fanfict here and going to try to let it play out the best I can. Hope you all enjoy the story as I find time to write it.

Disclaimer: Don't own any part of Naruto.

* * *

**Prologue – Loss of Innocence**

'_It is done_,' Naruto thought as he looked over the unconscious body of Uchiha Sasuke as a light rain began to fall. "Now…I just need…to drag your…sorry butt back…home," muttered Naruto as his body seemed to just give out on him and he began to fall forward. The ground rushed up to meet his face and unable to move his arms to shield his face, Naruto's mind only flashed, '_Well, this is going to hurt_,' and he shut his eyes tightly but the pain never came.

Daring to open one of his eyes, Naruto looked up to see a welcomed sight. His sensei had appeared out of nowhere and caught the back of his shredded jacket just before he hit the ground. Pakkun seemed to be looking Sasuke over. Too tired to do much else, Naruto just grinned at his spiky, silver-haired sensei. "Mission… accomplished…" he got out before giving completely into his exhaustion.

"That it is," replied Kakashi as he lifted Naruto onto his back. Giving a low whistle, he observed the Valley of the End; huge gnashing alongside the cliff sides, gigantic craters in the valley, and entire rock spires completely blown away. '_This fight is definitely one for the record books_,' marveled Kakashi. He looked back at Naruto with no small amount of shame at himself. '_You've gotten so strong without me even bothering to teach you very much. I've let such an untapped potential slip right past me for so long. Obito, looks like I've failed you again_.'

Making sure that Naruto's sleeping form wasn't going to fall off of his shoulders, he turned to Pakkun. "How's the traitor?"

"I'm no medic but it seems that a few broken ribs, a mild concussion, and a mangled right arm are the worst of it," reported Pakkun. "There doesn't appear to be any internal bleeding or any irreversible damage."

"Hmm…" observed Kakashi as he pulled out two pairs of chakra cuffs and binded Sasuke's wrists and ankles. Then he pulled out a mild sedative and administered it to Sasuke. "That should make sure he remains unconscious until we reach the village and prevent him from trying anything." Summoning a giant bull dog, he unceremoniously hefted Sasuke onto the dog's back like a sack of potatoes. Nodding to the two dogs, all three began the trip back to Konoha.

* * *

Naruto awoke about three fourths of the way back to the village. After assuring his sensei that he could walk on his own, the uncertain jounin bent down to let Naruto stand on his own feet. The blond ninja stumbled at first, but quickly regained his footing. He flashed a grin to his sensei before darting off in the direction of the village.

"Naruto!" shouted Kakashi as he chased after his charge. "You were on the verge of chakra exhaustion when I found you! You shouldn't be running off yet!"

"Ah, come on Kakashi-sensei! You know that a little thing like chakra exhaustion isn't enough to keep me down for long!" Naruto countered. "Besides, the hero's got to look the part when he returns right!"

Letting out a small sigh, Kakashi replied, "Hate to admit it, but I guess you have a point there; on both accounts." Kakashi knew that he wouldn't want to be carried back home either; most ninja won't—to prideful. Deciding to change the subject, "So tell me what happened between you two. I realize that I arrived too late to help." A fact that weighed heavily on Kakashi.

Naruto launched into a description of how he had caught up to Sasuke in the Valley of the End and how the fighting escalated up to the points of Sasuke upgrading his Sharingan ability and transforming into some strange creature using that seal on his neck. Naruto described how he had started to unleash more and more of the Kyuubi's charka in order to continue to counter Sasuke's rising power. Kakashi remained silent throughout the tale taking everything in, until Naruto reached the part of the climax; the clash of Sasuke's chidori and Naruto's rasengan.

Kakashi could barely contain his anger. His two students had went at each other with assassination techniques. These are moves meant to do nothing short of killing those they are used against. Kakashi's visible eye became very solemn at that fact. Naruto continued to explain how he had used his rasengan to counter the destructive force of the chidori while he used a Kyuubi-powered clone to appear behind Sasuke and render him unconscious with a blow to the back of the distracted ninja's head.

Both ninja continued in silence after that. Naruto happy in his victory against his rival and Kakashi calculating just how important and strong Naruto was becoming to the village. Sasuke had meant to kill Naruto in that final move while Naruto had never given up hope in finding a way to just incapacitate his friend. It unnerved Kakashi when his mind thought that Naruto might have even took the chidori to the chest if it showed a way to help his friend.

* * *

The village came into view about two hours later. Kakashi was slightly surprised at the number of people awaiting them at the gate. Then he remembered the two junior ninja with him and became surprised at himself for being surprised in the first place. Naruto, Kakashi, Pakkun, and the other large summoned bull dog landed right in front of the crowd.

The bull dog threw Sasuke off of his back where the unconscious boy landed heavily on the dirt ground with a thud. Happy to be rid of the weight the dog turned back to Kakashi, barked, and disappeared in a veil of smoke. A team of med-nins ran to check on Sasuke.

Kakashi was not pleased with this. "Oi, oi, oi," he addressed the med-nins. "That traitor can wait. You should come check up on Naruto first."

One of the medical ninja turned to Kakashi and scoffed at him. "That brat can wait. Sasuke-sama is the future of this village. His wounds always come first."

Kakashi began to approach the medial ninja menacingly, but was beaten to the punch as he watched a fist bat the medic into the crowd. Tsunade was furious at what she had just heard. "That "brat" as you call him, is twice the ninja that this broken traitor here will ever be." Tsunade wrapped Naruto up in a fierce hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…" she continued to whisper to him.

"Can't breathe…" Naruto managed to get out. Embarrassed, Tsunade released him and began to heal his wounds. "You're welcome baa-san, but I just brought Sasuke back. It was my mission."

"Not that," she answered him. "Thank you for being alive. After healing the severe injuries of your teammates, I feared that I was going to lose you and it would have been my fault for sending you out on that stupid mission in the first place."

Naruto became really worried at this. "What happened to them? Are they alright?"

Drying her eyes, Tsunade managed a smirk, "Who do you think I am? Choji and Neji may have been in critical condition but they're stable now and will make a full recovery."

Naruto let out a breathe of relief as he spotted Sakura walking towards him. "Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed as he turned towards her. "I managed to bring Sasuke back for you! He didn't want to but I was able to…"

Naruto didn't manage to finish that sentence as a fist connected squarely with his chin and he went flying back a couple of feet before crashing onto the ground. "You were able to what! Beat him to death! Destroy his arm! Crush his ribs! I trusted you to bring him back, not kill him!" She then drew a kunai and charged at the stunned boy.

Naruto was too shocked to even bother to attempt to get out of the way as the kunai drew closer to his face. It suddenly stopped as Sakura's arm was roughly jerked back and restrained by Kakashi, his own kunai at Sakura's neck. "I will not allow my pupils to kill each other. Sakura you are way out of line!" His voice was full of anger.

"I'll never forgive you for hurting Sasuke!" Sakura shouted at Naruto as she struggled to free herself. "I hate you Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Enough!" hissed Kakashi as he applied pressure on Sakura's wrist to make her drop the kunai.

"Release her at once, Kakashi of the Sharingan," ordered Koharu as she stepped out from the crowd. "That girl would be doing us all a favor."

"Kakashi, do not release her," countered Tsunade. "She has attempted to kill a fellow shinobi of the leaf and that will not be taken lightly."

"I believe that an exception can be made in this case," Homura waved off as, he too, stepped out from the crowd.

"How dare you!" shot back Tsunade. "For a village that prides itself on teamwork and unity, how can you just say you'll let a murder attempt slide?"

"Simple," Homura continued. "Uzumaki Naruto will never truly be accepted by the council of Konoha. His dream to become a Hokage will always remain just that, a dream."

"Why you dirty little…" started Jiraiya, making his presence known.

"Ah, ah, ah, Toad Sage," mocked Homura as he shifted his finger back and forth. "You can be as angry as you want, but the will of the entire council is final. Not even the Hokage can overrule a majority vote."

"Actually," Koharu piped up again, "we found some rather important files in the Third's personal study. Seems that sly old professor had been pulling one over on us for awhile now. He used his ability as the Hokage to create a certain law, but according to the establishing documents of Konoha we found in his study, the council is given the ability of repealing a single law from the old Hokage that they disagree with should they reach a majority vote."

Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kakashi all visibly paled at this. "You wouldn't," meekly whispered Tsunade.

"Oh, but we would," stated Koharu. "As of today, the Third's law concerning Uzumaki Naruto has been repealed."

Homura used a small earth style justu to create a podium for himself and Koharu. "Villagers of Konoha! Especially the younger generation! Listen to me! As you all have been taught, the Kyuubi was defeated by the Fourth Hokage! However, that is a lie! A lie created by the Third to hide the truth! The fox was too strong for the Fourth to kill! Instead he sealed the beast into a newborn baby! A child you all know as Uzumaki Naruto! Demon spawn of Konoha!"

Instantaneously, all people near Naruto pushed away from the boy. All except for Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kakashi. Sakura was still being restrained by Kakashi, but she was struggling to be released.

Naruto was frozen in place. He had expected a hero's welcome. He had brought back Sasuke. He had brought back his greatest friend and enemy from falling into darkness. He had fulfilled his promise to Sakura. He expected cheers and people congratulating him on a job well done. Instead Sakura now hated him from the bottom of her heart and had even tried to take his life. And to top it off, the elder council had just bluntly revealed his secret to the world. His world was crashing down around him.

However, the council wasn't finished there. Koharu cleared her throat and finished the act Homura started with a decisive blow. "This council feels that the demon has become too unstable, too wild. Just look at the state that our dear Sasuke is returned to us in. His body has been through hell while the demon looks perfectly fine. This fiend clearly tortured Sasuke for his own benefit before bringing him back. It is by the power of this council that we declare the banishment of Uzumaki Naruto! Should he ever appear again within the borders of Fire Country then he is to be killed on sight."

"Now wait just a minute!" demanded Tsunade as she stood up to face the council. "As Hokage, I refuse to allow you to just banish a leaf shinobi without consulting myself and the clan heads!"

"And as the elder council, we must remind you that Naruto has blatantly attacked and critically injured a leaf shinobi first," smirked Homaru. "The council has the power once again to overrule the Hokage's judgment should it feel the ninja in question is a serious threat to his fellow comrades."

"I won't allow you to do this!" countered Tsunade. "If you are going to banish Naruto, then I resign from the position of Hokage. I only agreed in the first place because of the ninja you are deciding to banish."

"Unfortunately for you Tsunade," Koharu inputted, "you are not allowed to immediately resign as Hokage. That option is only allowed after a full year of service. If you leave to travel with Naruto then you shall be declared a missing-nin and killed on sight as well." Then turning towards to Jiraiya, she continued, "And don't you even think about leaving either. The council is revoking your rite of free passage. We need you need in the village to help us rebuild and remain strong. Sasuke will need an instructor after he recovers. Both yourself and Kakashi shall be fulfilling those roles."

"Hold up!" snarled Jiraiya. "If you think that I'm going to instruct that pathetic excuse for a ninja anything, then you're crazier than I thought. That traitorous scum doesn't even deserve to know my name. He was running off to meet my old snake bastard of a teammate."

Koharu and Homura momentarily debated amongst themselves before Homura stated, "Fine, you needn't instruct the pride of Konoha, but you shall be sent on the most challenging of missions to make up for it."

"And what makes you so sure that I'm going to keep teaching that piece of trash anything either?" questioned Kakashi sternly.

Shocked, Koharu did not seem to foresee this. "What do you mean Kahashi? You have to teach the boy. You are the only one left in the village with the Sharingan eye that can properly instruct the boy how to use. You have to instruct him. That is your responsibility!"

"This trash just tried to kill his own teammate!" shouted back Kakashi. "I've failed the lessons of my sensei and my team enough times now. Sasuke and Sakura have both forsaken their comrade. I will never instruct either of them ever again."

"You forget yourself Kakashi," sneered Homura. "I would hate for anything to happen to you as a result of denying the last Uchiha mentorship."

"And you forget yourself Homura," countered Tsunade. "Do you really think that I would just let you intentionally harm one of my most elite Jounin? The council may have found a slight surge of power, but do not forget that I am still the Hokage. I will find a way to undo all the harm that the council has committed today."

Koharu laughed at this. "You can certainly try."

Tsunade's face became even more stern. "I intend to."

"Tsunade, I wish to submit my case for membership back in the ANBU," Kakashi suddenly added.

"Done," came the simple reply. "I shall see you reinstated and made a captain by the end of the week."

Homura let out a curse at this. Kakashi would be well protected as an ANBU captain under Tsunade. Finding a willing and capable instructor for the Uchiha boy had just become much more difficult than he initially assumed.

Realizing that this was the best she could did in this sudden stalemate of power, Tsunade turned back to Naruto. She wanted to reassure him that she would never give up on him and would find a way to counter this banishment. However, Naruto was gone.

'_He must have slipped away sometime during our argument with the council. He's probably feeling a large sense of betrayal from the village he loves right now_,' Tsunade reasoned. '_I've got to find him!_'

As she began to race towards the entry gates, Homura's voice plagued her ears once more, "Do not go after him Tsunade! Leaving without even bothering to say a single good-bye just proves how much of a demon the boy is becoming." Laughing at their victory, Homura and Koharu began walking back towards the Hokage Tower. The crowd began to dissipate slowly as people spat in the direction the demon had left before going back to their daily activities.

Tsunade was just sitting on her knees, silent tears rolling down her eyes as she strained her eyes to try and just a glimpse of Naruto's orange jumpsuit in the woodland foliage. Jiraiya stood next to her and placed a strong hand on her shoulder. "The brat is resourceful Tsunade-hime. He's made friends outside of Fire Country's borders and I'm sure he'll be okay. I'll do what I can to continue to keep taps on Akatsuki's movement. I swear that if they start to get close to the boy then I will interfere, council be damned."

"And so will I," reassured Kakashi as he came to stand next to Jiraiya. He had handed off Sakura to Ibiki and Anko for punishment.

Little did the three realize that they would never hear from, see, or make any sort of contact with Naruto ever again.

* * *

Six years later, after Sasuke had learned everything he possibly could from the best tutors the elder council could find, he once again deserted Konoha in favor of Orochimaru. Many high-level jounins and chunins were lost trying to restraint the boy from leaving, Sakura was among them.

After studying with the snake for two more years, Sasuke left Orochimaru with a team of his own creation, managed to track down his brother, and after an unimaginable battle of epic proportions, avenged his clan. After that, Sasuke and his team just fell off the face of the world and had not been seen or heard from again.

Orochimaru, furious in being used and cheated out of such a promising vessel, spent the next five years building back up his strength before forming shaky alliances with Kumogakure and Iwagakure and launching an enormous assault on Fire Country. Konohagakure put up a valiant effort in the defense of its homeland and every mile of land conquered by Orochimaru's forces came at the price of hundreds of deaths on both sides.

After slowly progressing through Fire Country for about six months, Orochimaru managed to sway Amegakure and Kusagakure from their neutral stance with promises of land and power over to his side. Sunagakure and Takigakure remained neutral despite numerous pleas from Konohagakure for an alliance. Sand and Waterfall would not aid the village that banished the one ninja from its borders that they had come to respect and admire.

Without any outside support, Konoha could do little to prevent its own slaughter. On March 10, thirteen years after Naruto's banishment, Orochimaru's forces managed to overcome Konoha's final lines of defense and stormed the city…


	2. Ch 1 Flight!

Disclaimer: Don't own any part of Naruto.

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**Chapter 1 – Flight!**

Explosions erupted continuously throughout the village of Konoha. Kunai and shuriken rained down from the heavens at various internals as the advancing enemy shinobi launched the weapons towards the fleeing leaf populous. There would be no quarter for the Leaf.

"Ugh…" came a weak voice as a pile of rubble shifted at the entrance to an alley. "Damn sound bastards…" furthered the voice as a fist punched the rubble and a disheveled form clawed its way out. After coughing through the dust a couple of times, the figure groaned and attempted to recollect itself. "Akamaru…Akamaru…where are you boy?" the figure finally managed to get out.

Two red triangle symbols adorned the figure's face, a marking of his clan. Looking left and right, a tiny patch of white fur buried under the side of a collapsed building caught the man's eye. "No…" he whispered; then louder, "NO!" The man rushed to the building and began throwing rocks and debris out of his way. He was greeted by the mangled sight of his former best friend's body. Akamaru had been crushed by the unforgiving collapse. Then the events of the past few minutes hit the man hard.

His team had been completely outnumbered and outmatched by a combination of sound, cloud, and rock nin. Taiga had been killed immediately, caught in a kunai trap. Yamano soon followed when a rock nin had pulled the leaf nin underground. Rai demanded that Kiba run and then ignited a suicide justu, erupting in a sphere of electricity and taking about half of the enemy nin with him. Kiba was fleeing from the pursing forces as buildings exploded next to him and kunai whizzed by his face. Akamaru had been right at his side the whole time. Then a build exploded on his left; the collapse was too close, the shadow was getting closer, he felt a body collide with his, and then nothing as he lost consciousness briefly.

"Akamaru…Rai…Yamano…Taiga…" he whimpered in mourning for his best friend and his teammates. "I failed you all…"

"Well look what we have here guys," came a gruff mocking voice.

"Looks like a broken and pathetic leaf reject to me."

"Crying over a dead dog, what a loser."

"Oh look he's shaking. I think we hurt his feelings."

Kiba could only take so many jeers and taunts at his lost. Grabbing a specialized soldier pill that the Akimichi clan makes for the Inuzukas, Kiba whispered a final goodbye to his team and loyal companion. Taking this pill would fully release his bestial instincts and intensify his rage to be used efficiently in combat. However, there was a chance that his mind would become completely locked in that state and Kiba would go mad. '_Like that matters now_,' smirked Kiba as he crunched down on the pill.

The jeering sound nin froze in shock when one of their jounin members erupted in a whirlwind of blood and guts, Kiba's intensified Fang over Fang attack shot him from building to building like a pinball machine. Three more shinobi were lost to the bestial roars and growls before the enemy regained their wits, spread out, and began throwing every kind of justu they knew at the whirlwind of death. Kiba cut through two more chunin before five kunai lodged themselves in various parts of his body and a boulder crashed into his right side, shoving him off course and into the ground.

The sound nin regained their confidence at the sight of the beating Kiba just took. That is until he stood up again, growling at them with his sharp set of canine fangs. He threw a blood pill and another specialized soldier pill into his mouth before returning to his rampage. Kiba had already thrown his life away and he'd be damned if he wasn't taking as many sound nin down with him as he could.

When Kiba came at them again, the sound nin were not as surprised as before. They saw that Kiba could still be hurt and they would bring him down. A combined use of sound waves collided with Kiba's attack and hurled him back into the ground.

The feral man attempted to push himself back up but his shaky arms gave out on him and he collapsed back onto the ground. All he could do was stare at the sound nin standing before him and growl.

This only caused the sound nin to chuckle as he grasped a kunai and brought it down towards Kiba. '_I guess this was as far as I could go…_'

Suddenly the remaining three sound nin found themselves impersonating pincushions and collapsed to the ground. Kiba was fading in and out of consciousness when he noticed a figure land in front of him. At the sight of a brown pair of hair buns and a Chinese style uniform, Kiba managed to whispered out, "Tenten?" Then he gave in to the comfort of unconsciousness.

"Kiba?" came the reply. Tenten shook her new charge. "Kiba stay with me now. What happened to your team? Are you hurt anywhere? Kiba? Kiba!" It was no good. The man was unconscious. Tenten drew back her hand and gasped. He was bleeding out. One of the kunai managed to dig past the underside of his flak jacket and into his stomach.

A quick survey of the area showed that they were no other survivors, friend or foe, in the immediate vicinity. Tenten still dragged Kiba into a nearby bakery anyways. It would not do to let the enemy sneak up on them in the middle of the street.

Once inside, Tenten ripped off Kiba's flak jacket and shirt. Grimacing at the amount of blood that was freely flowing from the wound, she tore off the left sleeve of her shirt and pressed the cloth against the wound to try and stem the flood. Then keeping pressure with her knee, her hands flashed through the seals needed to invoke a basic medical ninjustu. Her hands glowed green as she began to both seal and heal the wound. Healing the wound to a manageable level, she unsealed some medical wrap from her supply pouch and wrapped up Kiba's stomach.

Satisfied that most of the danger had past; she slapped Kiba lightly on his face. "Kiba! Kiba! Wake up! I can't have you unconscious on me here."

The dog man slowly began to stir, "Huh, what's going on… Is this heaven or am I in hell?" An explosion in the not-so-far distance brought him back to reality. "Hell it is then."

"Quite fooling around. Here eat this." She shoved a blood pill into his mouth. "You lost a lot of blood you know. What made you do something so reckless?"

"Those bastards killed my team and Akamaru!" spat out Kiba.

Tenten cringed at his lost. She had lost contact with Neji and the rest of her team after the outer wall was breached. For all she knew, they were dead. Another explosion; closer this time. All things considered, that was the most likely conclusion. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Thinking like that would not do anyone any good. "Not to sound heartless, but we've got to move. The fighting's getting closer." Standing up, she continued, "I'm sorry."

Putting back on his shirt and flak jacket, Kiba also stood and said, "Thank you, but you don't need to be sorry. Those sound bastards will be plenty sorry by the time I'm done with them."

He attempted to walk outside only to be pulled back roughly by Tenten. "Are you getting suicidal?! You can't just walk out into the middle of the street without a plan. The area's bound to be swarming with the enemy."

"I told you. I'm going to get my pound of flesh from these cowards!" he shouted back.

"No! What you're going to get is yourself killed! Do you really think that's what your team would have wanted? What Akamaru would want?" Tenten pleaded. Shame at throwing away his friends' sacrifices seemed to pass by Kiba's face. "Good, it seems that you're thinking with your head again instead of your instincts. You used one of those pills again, didn't you?"

"Two actually," Kiba mumbled.

"What?!" demanded Tenten as her voice slightly raised. "Even just one of those things is hazardous to take! What were you thinking taking two!"

"They killed Akamaru," reminded Kiba.

"Oh," meekly replied Tenten. "You pretty luckily still. I've seen how one of those pills can warp the minds of an Inuzuka. It isn't pretty."

"I know," added Kiba. He had seen the ill effects of the pill multiple times as the war had become more and more desperate and his clan began relying on the specialized soldier pill too much. It caused an Inuzuka to become a complete berserker on the battlefield. However, extended and unchecked use caused the Inuzuka to go feral and become unable to distinguish friend from foe. These crazed users had to be put down after the battle, if they survived, as the side effects were irreversible. Kiba's own sister, Hana, had fallen victim to the pill's side effects.

The pair stood in an awkward silence for a couple of seconds before the gravity of the situation returned to Tenten. "We've got to regroup with one of the evacuating groups. I think that the Academy group should be the closest so let's try and join up with them."

Kiba hesitated for another few seconds before responding, "Right." Maybe if he focused on getting something done, then he could keep moving forward. He sniffed around a bit to search out any traces of enemies in the area but the battle field was filled with the scent of blood and completely blinded his sense of smell.

Instead the dog lover focused on reaching out with a light charka pulse to get a perspective on his surroundings. Usually sending out a pulse of charka would give away his position, but with such a chaotic battleground, not many would care to focus in. The area was clear of any activity for the moment. Kiba nodded to Tenten and said, "Let's go."

A massive explosion erupted off in the distance. It was big enough to knock Kiba and Tenten back to the ground in a heap. "What was that!" questioned Tenten in alarm.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it was big. I'm seeing a lot of smoke rising from the northwest, but I can't make out what's going on," replied Kiba.

"The northwest!" shouted Tenten with no small amount of distress. "That's where most of our friends are defending! What if they're in trouble?"

"That district is much farther than the Academy and filled with much more hostiles," commented Kiba. "It pains me to say it, but I don't think that we will be able to make it there without a fight and even then we won't be in any shape to help. We'll be more of a burden. Shino, Shikamaru, and Neji are three of the smartest guys I know. They'll lead everyone to safety, I'm sure of it. Let's get to the Academy and look for help there first."

Tenten looked at the northwest once more before sighing and adding, "You're right. Let's get to the Academy. We'll regroup there."

* * *

After running for just a few minutes, Kiba's senses shouted "DANGER!" just seconds before he tackled Tenten to the ground, narrowly avoiding a barrage of kunai and shuriken. The pair rolled through the fall and immediately separated; Kiba ducking behind an overturned vendor cart and Tenten tucking herself behind a small tree.

"Looks like these two have some skill," came a mocking voice as the leaf nin noticed two grass and cloud nin each stepped out from behind cover.

Using hand signs, Kiba signaled over, '_I'll take the grass nin. Be careful, there are most likely more hidden from view._' Tenten nodded in agreement and readied a summoned bo staff. At an unspoken signal, both burst from their cover.

"Earth Style: Terra Fangs!" shouted Kiba as he rushed towards the two grass nin. Rock spires were erupting from the ground at the enemy nin at unbelievable speeds. The less experienced of the two soon found himself impaled upon the sharp rock while his partner managed to leap away with a bloodied left arm.

"You'll pay for that!" the grass nin snarled as he charged. Moments before he reached Kiba, he drew a standard issue ninja sword and swiped the blade at Kiba with a horizontal draw. The leaf nin just barely was able to throw himself back to avoid the sword edge. The grass nin continued undaunted with a series of stabs and swipes which Kiba found harder and harder to avoid.

A stray piece of rubble caused Kiba to stumble as he backpedaled and the grass nin smirked in victory as he brought his sword down for the kill only to for the blade to be blocked by a pair of sharp claws. Kiba had elongated and strengthened his claws with a family justu. Shocked, the grass nin grunted in pain as he looked down at his chest. Kiba's other clawed arm was protruding from his stomach. "Damn leaf," he gurgled out as he choked on his rising blood and toppled over.

Kiba turned to check up on Tenten just before he was forced to dodge a stream of kunai thrown from the roof of a nearby building. "Crap," he muttered as two more grass ninja dropped onto the street and charged him.

Tenten launched several shuriken at one of the cloud nin to keep the nin occupied long enough to launch herself at the other with her staff. It was obvious that the cloud nin had little or no training defending himself against a close range weapon of any sort as Tenten slipped past his clumsy guard and delivered a strong stab to his abdomen. As the cloud nin doubled over, she finished with a shattering blow to the back of her enemy's head.

"You killed my partner you damn bitch!" shouted the other cloud nin as his hands starting glowing sharply with bolts of electricity. He charged in all his fury.

Tenten dropped her now useless staff and summoned up a pair of wooden tonfas. The cloud nin threw an electric punch to her head with his left fist and Tenten batted it out of the way with her left and countered with a right haymaker. What she didn't expect was for the cloud nin to grab her left arm. She let out a scream as several hundred volts of electricity ran through her body before she managed to slam her right tonfa in the cloud nin's face. Panting heavily, she jumped back a couple of feet to make some room between the two.

The cloud nin had a stream of blood running down his face from where Tenten had broken his nose. His failed finishing attack seemed to anger him even more until he noticed Tenten's left arm had dropped her tonfa as it was twitching uncontrollably. Tenten was griping it with her right trying to make it stop shaking. "You thought that those wooden tonfas would save you? Lightning can jump from one source to another. One more touch and its game over."

Tenten grimaced as it didn't seem like her arm was going to stop twitching anytime soon. She pocketed her tonfas quickly and launched a kunai at the cloud ninja. "Please, this is your big counter attack?" he smirked; though his grin quickly changed into a frown when the single kunai became several dozen courtesy of a kage kunai no justu. He cursed and dove to the right, but not before several kunai lodged deeply into his left arm rendering it useless.

"Looks like we're even again," mocked Tenten as summoned up a demon windmill shuriken.

"You wish," countered the cloud ninja as he quickly used a small medical justu to close the wounds on his arm and sent a small electrical surge into it. "Looks like the advantage is mine once again."

"I'd check again if I were you," smirked Tenten as she launched her windmill shuriken at the ninja.

He easily jumped out of the way and was about to fire back another snide remark until he noticed another windmill shuriken being launched at him. He summoned up a lightning clone to push himself out of the way, but then another shuriken was coming at him even faster. Every time he thought he had evaded the shuriken, another would be coming at him even faster. '_How is she throwing these so fast?_' his mind shouted at himself. '_If I didn't know better, then I would say this is a…Genjustu!_' he finally figured out.

Just as he released the illusion, he felt the cold steel of a kunai blade at his neck. "Too late," whispered Tenten darkly from behind the nin.

"When did you?" The cloud ninja muttered no more as the weapon mistress finished the job.

"When you were healing your arm," she finally answered as the ninja's body slumped to the ground. She turned to see how Kiba was faring. Three dead grass ninja littered the ground, but the fourth was locked in a battle of strength with Kiba as another ninja sword interlocked with sharp claws. A simple addition of a herself as back-up and a well-placed kunai, and only the leaf shinobi remained.

"Thanks," greeted Kiba as Tenten walked up to him. "I thought I was going to lose the fight for a second there. My charka levels are almost completely shot and my muscles were failing me."

"Don't mention it, but we need to go. If we stay here any longer, then we could end up in another battle," urged Tenten.

"Right."

* * *

Ten minutes later, the duo found themselves at the entrance of the Academy. Tenten used a special knock on the door to signal that they were friendly and then jumped back as a several pikes dropped from the entrance ceiling to impale the knocker. It was a counter-measure incase the enemy learned the signal knock. Leaf shinobi knew the door was still rigged.

As Tenten and Kiba walked into the dark halls, they were put off by how quiet the walkway was. "I don't like this," whispered Kiba. "It's too quiet. I don't even see any bodies. If there was a fight here, then there should be some signs."

Tenten nodded in agreement. "You're right. It's almost as if…Duck!"

Both ninja dropped to the ground as a horizontal guillotine swept through the hallway at an unbelievable speed. If they had been even a second slower, then they would be two nicely divided chucks on the ground right now. Tenten summoned twin kodachis while Kiba gripped another special soldier pill; both prepared for a close quarters fight.

"Wait! Stop!" came a cry from further within the building. "That's Tenten! They're leaf nin!"

"Wait, I recognize that voice. Lee, is that you!" questioned Tenten as she tightened her grip on her kodachis. If this was another trap, then she would not be caught unprepared. Kiba seemed to get the same idea and remained ready for a fight.

"Yes it is I! The youthful Azure beast of Konoha! Dynamic Entry!" came the cheerful reply as Lee exploded onto the scene in a burst of leaves and wind. "It is good to see both here and safe!" He shot them a thumbs up and a smile of pearly whites while one of his back teeth sparkled in the dark hallway unexplainably.

"I swear Lee, this has to be the first time I've ever been happy to see that stupid entrance of yours," sighed Tenten. Kiba snickered from behind her. "At least I know that it's you, because there is no way that anyone else would be caught dead repeating that act."

"Thank you for that Tenten," answered Lee before he quickly put up a trench knife to her throat. "But how can I be sure that it is your youthful self I speak to and not an unyouthful imposter."

Tenten never even flinched. She had expected this. Lee had grown up during the war. "Because I am one of four people that know that last time you had a drink of sake that you overpowered Neji and sat on his back while whispering sweet nothings to a pink lace pillow about how much you missed Sakura." Lee paled at this reference and dropped his trench knife.

"You did what?!" laughed Kiba in mirthful tears at Lee's antics.

Before Lee could say anything to Kiba, Tenten beat him to it. "Not the time." Lee settled on glaring at Kiba, which looked completely unnatural on his face. Kiba was failing miserably to keep from laughing at Lee's face. This earned him a hit on the head from Tenten. "I said now is not the time. Lee what's the situation? How fares the northwest side of the city?"

Lee's face fell at that statement and both Kiba and Tenten felt a knot rise in their stomachs. Whatever Lee was about to say, they weren't going to like it. "There is no more northwest side of the city."

Tenten felt her heart break at those words.

Kiba was a little more vocal. "What do you mean no more northwest side! It didn't just disappear! What happened?!"

Lee cleared his throat and stared at the ground, unable to look either Tenten or Kiba in the eyes. "That explosion. I'm sure you both felt it." Kiba and Tenten both nodded, not liking where this was going. "I was at the northern gate fighting off invading rock nin when it happened. There was a flash of light and the explosion. It decimated everything and everyone. It was a suicide shinobi. Orochimaru planted one of his sound shinobi with a working of explosive seals all over his body and sent him in the wave. When the shinobi was killed, the seals exploded, taking everything with them. Friend and foe alike. Our biggest force was there. After the explosion, the north side of the city was lost and most of the remaining shinobi retreated to various strongholds throughout the city."

Kiba could barely retain his fury. '_Hinata, Shino, Kurenai-sensei, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Asuma, Neji, Guy, Kakashi, and many others, gone—just gone. And I failed them by not being there,_' he mentally berated himself. He was too distraught to listen to the other, more rational portion of his brain that was telling him that if he was there, then he would have been caught in the blast as well and killed alongside everyone else. He looked at Tenten and could see that she was just as devastated by the news. '_Damn Orochimaru and damn his stupid blood war against Konoha._'

"So what now?" came a sharp decisive question from Tenten. Both of the men looked at her in surprise. "I said, what do we do now?"

"Tenten…" started Lee.

"Don't even," countered Tenten just as quickly. "Neji and the others gave their lives already. We can grieve later. Right now we need to keep moving forward." Though her words were cold and harsh, both of the guys could see the tears falling from her face at being unable to do anything for her lost friends. It was painfully obvious that she was trying to lose herself in doing her duty to kept from feeling the pain.

Lee paused for another few seconds before giving them their next set of instructions. "There's a small band of jounins and chunins here right now. We've got a good number of genin and about four hundred civilians all below ground. Our team just finished rigging the Academy with explosive seals. We're going to use the underground catacombs and evacuate everyone that we can out of Konoha. It pains me to say it, but the village is lost. Our Hokage's standing orders in case of this kind of event are to flee Konoha and rally at the Fire Nation capital."

Kiba and Tenten followed Lee to the entrance of the catacombs. Tenten hopped down the tunnel first and Kiba was about to follow when explosions went off all around the Academy entrances. "Shit!" shouted Kiba. "They're here already! Lee go first! I'll keep them busy!" Kiba turned to rush the enemy but was shocked to instead feel himself being pushed into the tunnel entrance by Lee.

"You're too injured to hold them back Kiba. But never fear, I, The Azure Beast of Konoha, shall ensure that you are not followed!" shouted Lee to Kiba with a smile on his face as the dog lover tumbled down the entrance. "Tell Tenten I'm sorry!"

The last image of Lee that Kiba saw was him unleashing all of the celestial gates at once and then the tunnel entrance collapsing around him. Hitting the ground, he dove and tackled Tenten out of the way of the falling rocks and debris.

"Wait!" demanded Tenten. "Where's Lee!"

"He's being a hero," whispered Kiba as he looked away from Tenten.

Her face went white. "No! Not Lee too! No! Let me go! I'm going back! I can help him!"

"Tenten!" shouted back Kiba. "The entrance is blocked! Lee's fighting to give us time! Do not waste his sacrifice!"

Tenten wasn't listening though as she continued to struggle against Kiba's clutches. "No! Let me go! Let me go damnit! I can save him! I can…urgh…" She was silenced as Kiba used a pressure point on her neck to render her unconsciousness.

"Thank you Lee," whispered Kiba as he picked up Tenten bridal style. A couple of leaf nin walked forward. "Lee's buying us time. We need to move now." The ninja nodded in agreement. "Who's in charge?"

One of the ninja with a burn mark along the right side of his face answered, "I am. I'm Namiashi Raidou, former member of the ANBU. We cased aside our masks when the village was lost."

Kiba nodded in understanding. "I'm Kiba and this is Tenten. We are both of jounin level and are yours to command, sir."

"Good. We can use all the high ranking shinobi we can get. And let us not waste Lee's sacrifice," commented Raidou as he motioned for the evacuation group to begin fleeing out of the city.

Kiba gave one last look at the collapsed entranceway before turning and following the group. Tenten was still unconscious in his arms, tears rolling down her face.

* * *

Dozens upon dozens of enemy shinobi lay defeated throughout the Academy. Lee was feeling completely low on strength but he kept at it. Another punch and another enemy nin fell to the ground. He was slowing. His movements were not as fast as they originally were. The more experienced jounin were starting to match his speed. They were the most serious threat. Lee killed them first.

It was about an hour after he had been separated from Kiba and Tenten. He was tired. He was so tired. But the faces of his friends kept popping up into his mind every time he stumbled. And he would find another wind. More enemy ninja fell to his fists. Even more continued to flow into the building. Suddenly a rock jounin managed to get a lucky strike behind Lee's head and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Smirking, the rock jounin pulled out a kunai and bent down to finish the job. Lee suddenly disappeared from view. "What?" was all the jounin managed before Lee appeared behind him and twisted the man's neck.

"What the?!" shouted a stray grass genin. "I thought he was unconscious from that hit!" Lee turned towards the sound of the voice. The genin's eyes grew in fear. "He is unconscious! But how's he…?!" The genin was the next victim of Lee's fighting instincts. Fear erupted throughout the enemy's line as Lee continued to beat them to death even while unconscious. Dozens more fell to Lee's instincts, drilled into him from endless hours of discipline and training.

Another hour passed before twenty enemy jounin finally managed to work in conjunction to stab Lee through with multiple pointy weapons. The green jumpsuit wearing man still had a smile on his face as he died. The jounin had no doubt in their minds that they only managed to kill the green demon because he had finally tired out and exhausted all of his strength. They had lost over two hundred combined ninja forces to just one enemy leaf ninja. In close quarters combat no less! The celestial gates were truly a fearsome weapon once mastered.

Several rock ninja opened the collapsed tunnel entrance that Lee had guarded with his life. Most of the enemy forces were hesitant to enter the catacombs. If the gate keeper had been this tough to defeat, then what possibly awaited them in the dark underground? In the end four sound, two cloud, two rock, and one grass platoons consisting of four ninja a piece were ordered down into the darkness to investigate what the gate keeper was defending.

* * *

As the great city of Konoha fell, a lone figure stood atop the Yondaime face head of the Hokage monument. The hooded figure quietly took in the destruction. He noticed pockets of resistance still fighting in various parts of the city but the effort was futile, Konoha had been utterly defeated. Scanning the city for any fleeing survivors of the onslaught, but could not find anyone attempting to flee. '_Fools_,' the figure thought. '_Your city is lost. Anymore fighting is in vain. They should escape to fight another day. Any Hokage with half a brain would order their people to flee…Unless…stupid ninja are disobeying orders. Fools. They attack in vain and let the civilian populous die unprotected…Wait_.' The figure felt the aftermath of a full celestial gate release. '_Perhaps, some shinobi still know how to follow orders_.'

The figure turned to leave. However several sound, cloud, and rock ninja stepped out from the tree line. "Well what do we have here?" mocked a cocky sound jounin. "Such suspicious clothing for a civilian and such pathetic skills for a ninja. Didn't even sense us approach."

"I don't bother with small fry," answered the hooded figured sharply. "I suggest you leave if you wish to live."

"Oh really?" smirked a rock nin as he shoved the figure. "And what are you going to do to us?"

"I advise you not to push me again," answered the figure. "That is, if you wish to keep that hand."

"What a comedian!" mocked the rock nin. He was completely convinced that either the figure would not try anything due to being outnumbered or he could handle the situation. The rock nin was a jounin after all. "You and what army?"

The rock nin shoved the figure once more. Just as his hand made contact with the hooded figure's shoulder, the stranger had drawn a kodachi and sliced off the hand in a blink of an eye. The rock jounin couldn't believe what had just happened and stumbled backwards. He was still trying to comprehend what just happened and his subordinates were at a similar lost of words. "Gezs hiesm," he muttered out. "Gezs hiesm."

His shinobi did not understand the order, but the hooded figure spoke for him. "It seems that your leader is going into shock. Not surprising, that was just a pretty traumatizing event there. But I think he's trying to say Get him!"

The rock, sound, and cloud ninja made to rush the figure when they all felt the cold steel of a kunai at their necks. A single nod from the hooded figure and the deed was done. Bending down to the still-in-shock rock jounin, the stranger answered, "That army."

The rock jounin looked behind his fallen subordinates to see an equal number of similarly hooded figures. "Who are you?" he questioned with shallow breathe.

The hooded figure merely held up a specialized three ponged kunai knife. The rock jounin's eyes went wide at what this weapon meant. However, the ninja thought no more as the figure finished the job.

The stranger turned towards all the other hooded figures. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered to himself. Then to the others, "Search the village for survivors. Bring anyone you find with you to our rally point. And stay out of sight! I want no confrontations of any kind, for any reason. But if you are sighted, then eliminate all non-leaf witnesses. Go."

The other figures disappeared into the village. The original member had felt three strong charka signatures before the celestial gate signature. He sighed before dropping himself off the face of the monument and into the village.


	3. Ch 2 Remnants

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Naruto.

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Remnants**

Multiple pairs of two hooded figures darted throughout the devastation of destroyed buildings, craters of shockwaves, and completely uprooted trees. Though their hoods prevented anyone from seeing their features, no emotion played across their faces. The mission was simple: search and retrieve, not search and rescue. If any of the dwindling survivors were being confronted actively by non-leaf forces, then the teams left them to their fate. A fate that meant death—sound and her allies were not taking prisoners.

This may seem cold and inhuman to just leave the defeated party to their fate, but the orders where clear: no confrontations of any kind, for any reason. They were not to be seen. Jumping in to rescue others put them at an unnecessary risk of being discovered should one of the enemy shinobi have the sense and ability to flee and report their movements.

Still the assaulting forces must have been harboring an outstanding amount of rage and hostility towards the Leaf as they had been very thorough. Many of the bodies the teams came across had been outright crushed by boulders and debris, completely entrenched with small metal needles, covered in sprouting dead flowers and weeds, or just laying there with blood running from their ears—most likely from rupture. Each of the attacking villages had been leaving their marks on the dead victims. Almost as if it had become a contest to see which village could kill the most; the signature village marks would serve for a later tally.

Though, as thorough as the enemy was, life always manages to find a way to survive. The teams found surviving children hidden under the floorboards of several houses. Some of the bodies sprawled across Konoha were still alive; stubborn souls who just seemed to refuse to die. The teams took those with the least serious wounds and best chance of survival. It was standard triage procedure with three different, yet simple, categories: "L" for will live regardless of care received, "I" for immediate care may mean the difference between life and death, and "E" for expected—this person will die regardless of any attempt to save the person's life. There seemed to be a much larger portion of the ladder.

Any consciousness body that they found was quickly rendered unconscious. Civilians may not have as much charka stores to be detected, but a surprised shout would still draw unnecessary attention.

As the teams gathered the survivors they could find, they snuck out of the ruins of Konoha. The lack of fleeing leaf shinobi had made the assaulting forces a bit lazy on watching the perimeter, a fact that the teams used to their benefit to evade detection and slip away. After thirty minutes, every team had left regardless of whether they had found any survivors or not. The longer they were in the area, the most likely that a passing enemy force would notice their presence.

* * *

The legendary slug maiden surveyed the battleground from where she lay, collapsed on the ground, slow moving grey smoke-filling the sky above her. Jiraiya lay about three feet to her right, but she knew that her teammate and lifelong friend was dead. If her blurry vision and loud ringing in her ears had anything to say about it, then she would soon be following him. The splintered log in her chest probably wasn't helping matters either. She had already unleashed the charka stored in the jewel on her forehead and her Creation Rebirth ability was barely keeping her alive. The damage was just too much and she was too low on charka.

She just lay there staring up at the sky. She knew her time was up. Soon she would be reunited with Dan and Nawaki. She wasn't sure how pleased they would be with her as Konoha was obliterated on her watch, but she didn't care. The last thirteen years as Hokage never gave her even one instance in which to believe in Konoha, to believe in the village that Dan and Nawaki loved. The only reason she had even remained there was out of hope that Naruto would be found one day and she could appoint him the next Hokage. If she didn't stay to do that, then she feared he would never achieve his dream in this village of undeservers.

Tsunade attempted a bitter laugh at fate's twisted sense of humor but only managed in gurgling up some blood. Naruto had disappeared off the face of the map at the start of his banishment. At first she chalked it up to the unwillingness of Konoha's forces to even bother looking for the boy. But as time when on she realized that was not the case. Many Konoha teams were keeping an eye out for the boy both in and out of Fire Country while on missions. They had apparently got it in their heads that whoever finished the job of offing the boy could return a hero. Though that fact got her blood boiling, it still left the question of where Naruto was. Teams were unofficially looking for the boy but still no one could find a clue to his whereabouts.

Iruka had told her of Naruto's exploits during his Academy days. How the boy had managed to evade multiple chunin and jounin after committing large scale pranks. That too, she had chalked up to higher ranking ninja becoming lax in their training if they were unable to catch one single boy. Iruka had always been the one to ever find Naruto, but he had the suspicion that was always because Naruto let him. Tsunade had to face facts. When Naruto did not want to be found, he wasn't.

So she had waited patiently…the trees in multiple training grounds were uprooted and the ground covered in craters when she had gotten there…maybe not so patiently for his return. More than once she had feared that Akatsuki had captured and killed her surrogate son. However, Jiraiya continued to assure her that their movements did not reflect that. They were just as unsuccessful on locating the boy. The suspicious thing they had noticed in the last four years was that the Akatsuki seemed to have a change in membership every now and then for some unexplainable reason.

Darkening clouds were slowly filling the smoky sky. It would rain soon. Tsunade sighed in exhaustion. She wished that just more one time she could see the blond boy that had turned her life around and given her something to believe in again. Could listen to his cocky and boastful outbursts about being the best and the future Hokage of Konoha. Could see him pout when she assigned him a mission that was "too easy" for his skills. Could hear him call her "Baa-san" just one more time.

A sharp thought flashed across her mind. If she met up with Naruto in the next world then she would beat him to within an inch of his afterlife for leaving her just like Dan and Nawaki did. '_And for making her stay Hokage for all these years for no reason_,' she added as an afterthought. She was starting to feel so tired. Sleep was starting to sound so inviting and comforting. '_Dan, Nawaki, Jiraiya, I'll be there soon…_' she thought to herself.

A smile graced her face. At least they had killed their treacherous snake bastard of a teammate. The fight had been long, demanding, and completely in Orochimaru's favor until Jiraiya broke out his sage mode and sealing expertise to counter Orochimaru's underhandedness and curse seals. Tsunade found herself having to fight her resurrected grandfather, Hashirama Senju, also better known as the First Hokage while Orochimaru dealt with Jiraiya's sage mode.

It was not a battle that she enjoyed or won easily. The First united Konoha originally and was unbelievably strong. Still, he must have been fighting the justu as he had definitely held back. Tsunade had no delusions that in her old age she could rival the First. He seemed to restrain himself long enough for Tsunade to rip out the sealed kunai keeping him summoned into the world of the living.

Together, she and Jiraiya managed to overcome the snake and entrap him in Jiraiya's swamp of the underworld technique. The snake had suffocated within minutes. He still had many followers but she was not worried about that.

The sound would be broken in the end. Without Orochimaru's fear demanding presence as its leader, the sound would start to dissolve from the inside due to poor management. Kabuto may be crafty, but even he could not keep the village together by himself.

Her musings were broken however as a sickly chucking swept past her ears. Tsunade froze at the implications of that laugh. "My, my, Tsunade-hime," mocked Orochimaru as he limped towards the slug princess' battered form. "That was quite the battle there. However, it looks like once again the last laugh is mine!"

Tsunade couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't understand why this was happening! Together Jiraiya and herself had sent Orochimaru through hell and he still came back. She fought to hold back the tears that slowly formed. She barely felt the gentle breeze that seemed to pick up, almost as if to comfort her.

"Victory is mine! Finally, after years of being a stain on the world, Konoha has been disposed of. The village that refused to understand my greatness and instead chose that incompetent blond haired monkey orphan to be the Fourth Hokage has finally seen the error of its ways," ranted Orochimaru in victory. He had limped his way over completely and was holding his shattered right arm listlessly with his left. He was mostly drained of charka as well, but would never past up the moment to laugh in his teammates' faces. "So much for bonds. So much for a will of fire. All I see is a village past its prime."

Tsunade closed her eyes in regret and sorrow. This was how Konoha ends. No grand victory. No honor bound charge. But crushed and broken at the feet of her enemies. The gentle breeze from earlier seemed stronger now and somewhat unnatural. She opened her eyes to one of the most beautiful sights she could ever hope to see.

Orochimaru was being annihilated in a messily whirlwind of slicing winds and condensed spheres of air. The sound leader never saw it coming and was just as surprised by his quick death if his wide eyes were any indication.

Tsunade strained her neck to try and see the hero that had finished off Orochimaru while he was weak and vulnerable, a chance she was certain would never come so easily ever again if it had been passed by. However, the figure was standing too far away and she could only make out his black ninja boots. The darkness was coming again, but Tsunade fought it this time. She wanted, no, she _needed_ to know who ended the greatest evil that had ever plagued the village of Konoha since the Kyuubi.

The figured walked closer to her and seemed to pause where Jiraiya lay. Tsunade could have sworn she heard a prayer being given, but her blasted hearing was fading in and out. Finally, after what seemed like a whole other lifetime to her, the figure knelt down at her side. He was dressed in a faded green cloak and a hood that hid his face at the angle she was looking at him from. Annoyance filled her thoughts before her eyes focused in on a single key aspect of the stranger.

His necklace. Right there plain as day. Her grandfather's crystal necklace. Even in the darkening sky, it seemed to radiate light and warmth. And it rested on the chest of the hero who had shown up to finish what Jiraiya and her had started.

She reached out with her hand. The action was strenuous and seemed to suck out her life force even faster, but she didn't care. Her hand began to shake but just before it fell, the figure caught it within his strong grasp. Tsunade gasped at the warmth that suddenly surged throughout her body. Looking up, she finally managed to get a better view of the figure under the hood and smiled freely. Tears ran down her face as she passed on.

Several minutes passed like that; the hooded figure just kneeing next to the slug princess, holding her lifeless hand tightly without saying a word. The clouds had decided to burst during that lull of time and a light rain fell across the village. After what seemed like ages, the hooded figure gathered the bodies of both Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama and left the area before curious eyes decided to search out the deceased sound leader's battle zone.

* * *

It was a slow moving process. Ninjas can move quickly from location to location; however, civilians cannot. Needless to say, the group of about four hundred civilian refugees and about thirty five ninja escorts was moving at a pace that Kiba deemed way too slow. Despite traveling at a fairly steady pace for the last two hours, Kiba was certain that they had barely covered more than six miles; a distance that any pursing ninja could probably easily cover in about twenty minutes.

He knew that Lee was a strong ninja and his stamina was unrivaled, but the odds that the fearless man faced were staggering. Swallowing his pride, he knew that even if he was at full strength that he would not have been able to hold back such a horde for so long. He almost hoped beyond hope that Lee had somehow won and survived, plugged up the entrance again after crossing through, and was on his way to meet back up with them. Images of Akamaru's crushed body, Taiga's glazed over expression, the shock in Yamano's eyes, and Rai's exploding form invaded his memory. The truth was hard to shallow. Lee was gone, just like his team; just like all his old friends.

After checking the flame of his torch, Kiba looked over the crowd of refugees. There seemed to be a couple of families bunched together here and there, but most seemed to be lost; children without their parents, mothers ghostly holding the hand of a son or daughter that wasn't there, and elders without a supporting son to guide them along. Fear was apparent on each and every one of their faces. Not that Kiba could blame them. Pursing forces could be here any second and a petty escort force of thirty five shinobi of various ranks could do little against an entire legion of enemy forces. Especially since the aggressor would probably be in greater number and would not have anything to protect while they fought. Add that to the fact that all of the leaf nin were banged up in some way and were nowhere near full fighting potential. Yeah, fear was the appropriate emotion because if a fight broke out, then they probably would not be able to save all of them.

Shaking his head at such depressing thoughts, Kiba looked over to the front end of the assembly. After walking with the group for a while, Tenten had regained consciousness. Now he had upset plenty of females in his time, never being able to find that special someone, but he had never seen a woman look at him with such anger and disgust as Tenten had leveled at him. He was shocked initially, but then he knew that it was because he had prevented her from rushing to Lee's side. He couldn't find any words to give her and she didn't seem to lash out with any to him. Tenten had simply pushed to the front of the group and as far away from Kiba as she could get. That was why he was in the back acting as a rear guard.

Raidou had told him that with his and Tenten's arrival and the lost of Lee had put the group of ninja to a size of thirty five; four former ANBU, six jounins, ten chunins, and fifteen genin. Not exactly a force of power that invoked confidence during a war time situation.

Sighing again, Kiba nudged the older shinobi traveling next to him. The ninja had been marking the sides of the tunnel with paper seals that were blending into the rock after contact. "What are you doing?"

"These are warning tags," answered the dark blue bandana wearing ninja. "I've been setting these up every eight hundred meters that we've traveled. If anyone passes by them, I'll know."

"Awesome," commented Kiba. At least they would know if anyone started to purse them. "Any contact yet?"

"No," came the reply. "Trust me, I'll raise the alert immediately should one flare up. If we were moving at ninja pace, then we would only be about thirty minutes from the one I set up initially, two hours ago. So we'll need every second to prepare if we're followed. I'm Tatami Iwashi by the way, jounin."

"Pleased to meet ya," greeted back Kiba. "Inuzuka Kiba, jounin as well. You need anything tracked, just give me a call."

"I'll be sure to do that then," smirked back Iwashi. Then a more serious look crossed his face. Lowering his voice he asked, "Just between us, what do you think our chances are of surviving this?"

Kiba shook his head, "Honestly, we're probably screwed once a pursing force starts after us."

"That's what I was afraid of," replied Iwashi dejectedly.

Kiba punched him in the shoulder. "Hmph. That doesn't mean they won't take us without a fight! Those bastards will pay for all the crap they put us through. This was our home, our pack, and these bastards invaded that. Oh, they will answer for stepping into our territory." That seemed to brighten up Iwashi a bit, but Kiba knew that it was going to take a miracle to survive this.

* * *

"Ah! What a glorious day this is!" roared the Tsuchikage in hearty laugher. "Today we have finally brought Konoha to its knees! We have avenged our brethren who died at the hands of the damn Yellow Flash! Drinks are on me tonight boys!" A thunderous roar ignited throughout the rock forces.

"Victory is ours," agreed the Raikage. "Though, I'm still pissed that the snake had all the fun fighting the last two remaining Senin. The rest of this ramble was too easy to kill. If I had known that Konoha had grown this weak, then I would have attacked years ago."

"You may have missed out on the big fight Raikage; however the snake seems to have perished along with his former teammates. You know this means that the Sound just gave up more of its share of the conquered lands," smirked the leader of Kusagakure.

Kabuto immediately argued this point. "You have no right to just take from Sound's share! This war was originally Sound's idea!"

"But with the snake gone," started the leader of Amegakure, "do you really think that you have the power to resist us boy?" Kabuto backed down at the threat. Orochimaru could easily rival any of these kage-level ninja; he, however, could not. Being the strategist he was though, he decided to cut his losses and swore to himself to find a way to get these backstabbers back one day. He remained silent as the leaders began argue who got which portions of Fire Country.

Moments later, a sound chunin reported in with the information that a group of Konoha ninja and citizens were suspected of fleeing via an underground tunnel. Several teams were currently in pursuit already. Kabuto brought this to the attention of the arguing leaders.

"Hmph, let the cowards flee," replied the Raikage. "The battle is won and a few scattered pests do not concern me."

"You may not care, but those of rock still remember the days when the Yellow Flash hunted down our people," spat out the Tsuchikage. "I'll send some more teams to ensure this filth does not escape. I want to be sure every cursed member of this foul village is killed and no longer a threat to my village ever again."

The leaders of both Amegakure and Kusagakure agreed with the Raikage though. So what if a few bits of the villagers and some ninja rejects fled in terror? The more important matter was how to divide up this new land. Kabuto was a bit miffed at the lack of support, but informed his messenger to dispatch a few more teams with the rock forces to ensure this last loose end was taken care of. He sighed as he realized all the responsibilities of leading the Sound had now just fallen onto his shoulders.

* * *

Two fires crackled in the middle of a forest clearing. A small genjustu covered the area to prevent the rising smoke to be spotted from afar. Within each blaze one of the last two loyal senin lay as their bodies, and in turn all the secrets they held, were cremated. A lone hooded figure stood silently between the raging flames, his hands pressed together in prayer for Konoha's loss.

The ceremony had taken about fifteen minutes before it was finished and the figure gathered the ashy remains and placed them in two separate jars, pocketing them in a sealing scroll. These ninja that the jars held deserved better than just being buried in some random field. He would carry them to a better resting ground before burying them. The task accomplished, he turned and headed towards his group's rally point.

* * *

Hyuuga Hanabi was a textbook ninja through and through. She awoke from her unconscious state without making a sound. Her breathing did not change, she did not shift, and her eyes did not flash open. To the outside world, she was still peacefully off in dreamland. However, inside she was reaching out with her ninja senses to get a grasp of her situation. Her cousin, Neji, had constantly lectured her to practice more than just her Byakugan, lest she become dependent on it. It was that dependency thought that struck a nerve. Hyuuga Hanabi was dependent on no one or anything.

Still, without her legendary eyesight ability she was unable to get a completely accurate view of the situation, but it was good enough. She seemed to be laying in a field with several others. By the feel of their charka signatures, there were two more jounin level ninja besides her, three chunins, and two genin. The other twenty-five or so signatures were so weak that they must have belonged to civilians. Great, just what she needed, a hindrance. If they were captured by the enemy, then as a loyal Konoha ninja, her first priority was to ensure their safety.

There were multiple other charka signatures encircling them in a protective ring about twenty feet away. That didn't make much sense. It was almost like they were set up to shield the unconscious villagers and shinobi instead of use them as hostages or bargaining chips. She dared to wiggle her arms a little and was shocked to discover that they were unbound. Testing her legs, she was pleasantly surprised with similar results. These either had to be the most confident or the most stupid captors in the world. She slowly opened one eye to get an actual view of her surroundings. They appeared to be in a forest clearing with all the unconscious members based at the foot of a great oak. The captors all seemed to be wearing similar faded green hooded cloaks. They possessed no other markings, but their corresponding uniforms indicated them to all be working together, probably a special operations group if they did not display any open village affiliations.

Hanabi was also further impressed by her stroke of luck! It appeared that every one of captors did indeed have their backs to their captives! This was without a doubt the best chance she had to take the enemy by surprise. She glanced at the other ninja around her only to frown slightly at the fact that she only recognized two of them. And even then she still had never worked with the two she did recognize. They were Hagane Kotetsu and Kamizuki Izumo. Both jounin level and excellent fighters when working as teammates; however, she did not know their combinations and they would probably just get in her way anyhow. It looked like it was up to her again; solo, just how she preferred it.

Hanabi molded a barely noticeable amount of charka to her legs and exploded forward at her two closest captors. Two beautiful Juken strikes were delivered at the base of their skulls. However, instead of crumbling to the ground like she expected them too, the two captors burst into white smoke. Hanabi uncharacteristically paused for the briefest of seconds at the unexpected results of her attack. She almost missed the whispered voice of "_Forced Sleep no Jutsu…_" before she felt a light tap on her neck. She only managed, "Damnit…" before drifting back off to sleep.

The original member had returned to his group just in time to help the lone wolf kunoichi head back to slumberland. Sighing he drew back his hood to reveal unruly, sun-kissed blond hair and a piercing blue set of eyes. "Mah, kunoichi-chan, you just had to take down two of my specially reinforced kage bunshins didn't you?" Turning to the other bunshins, he ordered, "Use some sleeping agent to ensure the others don't wake up anytime soon. I rather not have to deal with them if they're just going to attack me."

Hefting the lavender-eyed kunoichi onto his back and ensuring that she wasn't going to fall off anytime soon, he raised his hands up into everyone's favorite cross-shaped seal and generated a few more clones to help with the carrying. After the sleeping agent was administered and the hoods once more in place, the group took off in the direction of the only fleeing collection of Konoha citizens.

* * *

Kiba was still not liking the pace that the crowd of refugees was traveling at. Every time that he brought the issue up to Raidou, he was reminded that this grouping consisted of mainly civilians who were traveling at a strenuous pace as it was already to their untrained bodies. Kiba would grumble out an "Understood, sir," before returning to his rear guard position. The exit of this escape route was still a good ten minutes away and Kiba was anxious to get back above ground and out of this narrow deathtrap of a tunnel.

During the walk, Kiba had started talking to one of the other ANBU level shinobi, named Yamashiro Aoba that was apparently teammates with Raidou. The conversation started when Kiba noticed the shinobi wearing sunglasses of all things down here in this dark tunnel. When commented about it, he had just shrugged and said that he had grew so used to wearing them that they really didn't hinder his version even in the dark. Kiba just stared at the man oddly and decided to leave it at that for now; he had seen weirder.

The quiet tunnel travel seemed to be causing a false sense of security among the group and Kiba found himself pinching his cheek several times to remain awake. It would not do to fall asleep now, even if he was exhausted. It was during one of his sleepy nods that a curse from Iwashi immediately snapped him back to complete attentiveness.

"What is it?! Are we finally being pursed?" questioned Kiba, once again on full alert.

"Worse," commented Iwashi was a bit of shame in his voice. "They must have a detector in their group. Several of my tags were disarmed without alerting me. They just crossed a double patch I set up as an extra precaution."

"What?!" came the shocked reply.

"We've only got about ten minutes at best before they're here." Iwashi slammed his hands together and summoned an earth style jutsu to create a dividing wall just behind the back of the group. Raidou saw the signal instantly. "Aoba! You're in charge! Take Tenten, Iwashi, and all the genin with you to protect the civilians and get them out of here! The rest of you lot! You're with me!"

The ninja suddenly came to life with these orders. The genin straightened up the ragged group of refugees and helped carry the elderly to get the crowd moving a little faster. The various other chunin and jounin rushed to the back of the group and started to quickly set up traps near the newly created earthen wall. Tenten grabbed Raidou's arm as he rushed by her, "I'm staying back as well. I will not abandon my comrades again to save myself!" Tenten didn't seem to take well to being told to leave others to die so she could escape again.

Raidou roughly pushed her grip aside. "You will do as you're told! We're not planning to die here either. I don't have very many high level shinobi to start with. Sending only genin with the refugees is stupid if there happens to be more enemies waiting at the exit. I trust Aoba to make sound decisions and Iwashi is probably one of the best ninjas at my disposal with detections. You're with them because your long range weapon abilities are known through the village. Hopefully that will let you be able to pick off enemies quickly from a distance and make up for the lack of manpower I can send."

"I still don't like it!" shouted back Tenten. "Just send another pair of jounin or a few chunin! I'll make up for the loss of manpower here! With all this closed space, there won't be many places the enemy can dodge and that makes my aim all the more deadly."

"That's a sound argument, but I've made my decision already!" ordered Raidou. "You will go with the refugee team."

"Sir!" interrupted Kiba. "Tenten can take my place here and I'll go with the other group. My nose is an excellent detection tool as well and I should be able to assist Iwashi and Aoba with the protection. My speed with let me dispatch just as many possible enemies as Tenten's weapons would."

Raidou seemed to mull this over for a couple of seconds. "Fine! Make the switch. We've got to get in position now!" He rushed over to the rest of the defending assembly.

Kiba wasn't expecting a thank you and therefore wasn't surprised in the least when Tenten barely sent a glare in his direction before following Raidou. He merely sighed. She might never forgive him for dragging her away from supporting her last teammate. He glanced back once more before rushing to catch up to the fleeing refugee team.

Eight minutes passed tensely for the defensive team comprised of three ANBU, four jounin, and ten chunin level shinobi. The traps were in place and they were just waiting for the enemy to burst through the rock wall. They were not disappointed. The explosion triggered several kunai traps to release their payload in the direction of the charging enemy forces. However, instead of aggressive shinobi falling by the wayside, multiple rock clones burst into raining bits of shrapnel. The rock nin wasted no time redirecting the shrapnel at the leaf defenders. Two unlucky chunin were too slow to get out of the way and were pierced through numerous times.

"Trigger the next set!" demanded Raidou as he countered several incoming shuriken. Moments later, a series of explosive tags lining the ceiling of the tunnel detonated and caused the passageway to collapse. More than three fourths of the assaulting force was either crushed outright or cut off from the battle.

Tenten whipped out two medium sized weapon scrolls and shouted out her trademark, "Twin Rising Dragons!" before launching an abundant amount of sharp, pointy objects at the cut-off forces. Several of them either summoned up earth mounds or pulled out metal umbrellas to protect themselves from the onslaught, but others were not as fortunate and succumb to the barrage.

After the initial clash, things seemed to be going uncharacteristically according to plan for the leaf shinobi. The enemy forces had been effectively cut down to seven with the others either dead or cut off while the leaf had only lost two and still had a force of fifteen to deal with the threat. Their traps spent, the leaf shinobi charged.

Raidou pulled out his ANBU issue blade and charging it with an electrical spark, started to cross edges with one of the larger rock jounin who had summoned a giant battle axe. As the axe front was brought crashing down on the smaller leaf's head, the small ANBU blade stopped it short of cleaving the nin in two. The rock jounin lifted an eyebrow in surprise, but recovered quickly and jumped back to reformulate his assault. He almost missed the leaf chunin jumping from behind with a kunai but managed to backhand him into a wall.

Gripping his axe tightly with both hands, he swung it horizontally with great force to hack the stunned chunin into two pieces. Just as the blade was about to reach, it was once again stopped by Raidou. The scar-faced ANBU kicked the chunin to the side and out of the way. "Go support someone else!" he ordered. "This one's too much for you to back me up!" Nodding the leaf chunin propelled himself back off into a different part of the fray. "Now, where were we?"

Tenten had abandoned her long range skills after emptying her rising dragon scrolls. Instead she opted for pair of trench knives. These nin were among those that killed Lee since they were pursuing them. She was going to enjoy this.

Without support, she had charged it the second her barrage ended and caught a rock chunin with a vicious uppercut the moment he dropped his stone wall defense. The glowing, charka enforced trench knife in her fist dug deep into his neck from the hit causing blood to erupt from the wound. Without a single look back at her fallen victim, Tenten launched herself at the next enemy nin she saw, a rain one this time by the looks of it. The enemy kunoichi was standing in a slight stupor at the harshness of Tenten's kill, but snapped out her daze when she noticed the angel of death descend upon her.

Clutching her umbrella, the rain kunoichi frantically blocked the first couple of Tenten's strikes. Suddenly, there was an opening. Tenten had committed too much motion into that last punch. The rain kunoichi capitalized instantly. She flipped her umbrella around and used the curved handle to grasp Tenten's wrist and pull her to the ground. Tenten stumbled forwards and barely kept her balance. However, the rain kunoichi got behind her and once again used the handle of her umbrella to catch Tenten's leg and flipped the enraged girl onto her back before swinging the umbrella full circle and nailing Tenten in the stomach.

Tenten grunted in pain as the wind was knocked out of her before she managed to roll out of the way of the follow up blows. She had lost herself in that fight there and almost paid for it greatly as the area occupied by her previously was now completely covered in cold, hard metal needles. The rain kunoichi was breathing a little faster but a smirk lay across her face as she realized that she could beat Tenten.

The rain nin jumped back to avoid a pincer attack from two interfering leaf chunin. They immediately launched themselves at her again though, the one on the left wielding a single kodachi and the one on the right with two kunai held in a reverse dagger grip. Tenten struggled to her feet while her unexpected support held her opponent at bay. Mentally berating herself for making such an elementary mistake, she readied her trench knives again and leapt back into the fight.

A couple of minutes later, the battle was over and the leaf victorious in the small skirmish. They had a few more injuries on their side but no more causalities. All enemies had been neutralized through the use of their teamwork. "That was reckless of you," commented Raidou.

"The enemy's been taken out right?" sniped back Tenten. "That's all that matters. They killed my friend and I killed them. End of story." She turned to head back to the refugee group.

Raidou merely shook his head. He would need to keep an eye on this kunoichi. If she continued to fight with reckless abandon, then she would only be putting others at risk. Hopefully avenging her friend would let her cool off now. A calm, calculating mind was needed on the battlefield. Rage and anger were only liabilities.

* * *

Kiba sniffed the fresh air as he worked his way out of the cavern exit; he was relieved to be sure that there was no one in the immediate area or had there been for quite some time. Dispelling the heavy genjutsu on the exit had been challenging, but he couldn't claim to be Kurenai's student for all these years without learning a trick or two about genjutsu. The thought of his lost sensei stirred up some more anger into his emotions and even though he said he'd switch places with Tenten, that didn't quell his urge to want to smash around some sound skulls. Still these pursers who most likely the ones that had defeated Lee and he could wrangle his emotions enough to let Tenten have this fight. Escorting a large group of refugees, they were bound to be spotted and there would be more chances for him to get even with Sound and its allies.

"Take the refugees and flee into the woods," ordered Aoba to Iwashi, Kiba, and the supporting genin. "Keep them out of sight. I felt some charka signatures moving towards us from the cave. I'll find out if they are friendly or hostile."

"Hai," saluted both jounin as they ushered the crowd into the woods.

Aoba didn't have to wait in the tree line for long. Three minutes later, Raidou's team emerged from the cave. Aoba launched a kunai directly at Raidou's feet. The scarred faced ANBU picked it up and pulled out two more kunai before he started to juggle the three knives. Several members of his make-shift team looked at him oddly, but Aoba knew this was the signal for a complete victory and we are who we say we are. He leaped down from the tree line.

"It'll be getting dark soon," observed Raidou. "The tunnel has been collapsed in the middle and offers better protection than the forest. We've neutralized the enemies as well so let's camp here for the night." He turned to look at his ninja. Most looked like they were ready to pass out and the soldier pills that they had been taking were all that was keeping them going. "The men need rest and I know the refugees are running on nerves right now. I'll take first watch."

"I'll help you with that," added Kiba as he had returned with the refugee group. Aoba had signaled that it was okay to return. "With my worked-up nerves, I doubt I could sleep right away anyways.

"Very well," replied Raidou. Then he turned to the ninja. "Go out in teams of three and bring back some meat and wood for a fire. We'll use the cave for this evening."

* * *

The fire was fading in the pit and everyone had turned in for the night except for Raidou and Kiba. The two were in the dark tree line, each at an even forty-five degree angle from the entrance remaining alert for any movement. Despite his boasting statement about being unable to sleep earlier, Kiba was fighting to keep himself awake. As he was mentally debating taking another soldier pill to cover the rest of his shift, something clicked in his head. It was quiet. Not just the standard night time quiet either, but stillness quiet. The bugs had stopped making noises. Kiba and Raidou had been there long enough for the insects to get used to them, but their renewed silence signaled the presence of others in the area.

Kiba took a deep sniff of the air again, irritated that his drowsiness had prevented his sense of smell to detect the approaching forces earlier. However, he was shocked by the lack of invading new scents in the area. His better-than-average night vision caught a hint of movement to his right and he instantly realized why he had missed the scent. '_The enemy approached from downwind! That's why I didn't sense them until they got this close!_' his mind shouted at him. It was such an Academy mistake that Kiba blamed on his lack of alertness. He whipped around immediately with a kunai in hand. "Halt!" he demanded as he snarled at the figure. "Who are you?"

The figure seemed to fade into the night tree scheme as his cloak blended with the earthen colors. Kiba couldn't see his face as it appeared to be covered with a hood. He was slightly surprised when the figure slowly raised both of his arms above his head in an act of submission. '_Well, this is unexpected_,' thought Kiba. Still, he knew that this could be a trap of sorts so he attempted to keep the target engaged in conversion while Raidou could sneak up behind the figure to knock him out. "State your business."

"My business is none of your concern leaf nin," came the cold answer. Kiba fingered another one of his specialized soldier pills in his weapon's pouch just in case. This was not good if the figure knew that he was a leaf nin. The possibility of an ambush just shot up in probability. However, the figure seemed to have more to add, "I do not affiliate with any village and you may refer to me as Shadow-sama."

Kiba mentally rolled his eyes at that. '_If this is just a missing-nin, then maybe he is alone. But the jury's still out on that one until we capture him and find out if he's really telling the truth._' "Well, Shadow-_chan_, if you're not going to tell me why you're here, then what will you tell me?" smirked Kiba trying to get a rise out of the unknown target.

Much to his disappointment, the figure didn't shift, even to the light insulting jab. Shadow-sama merely continued with his cold voice, "I'm here due to a promise I made to myself after a friend's passing. I have several survivors of your village's pitiful defeat and wish to return them to your group." Kiba growled at the pitiful defeat jab. "And as for the foolish moron attempting to get behind me, if you make a move, then you better do it right the first time; otherwise, I assure you it will be the last move you ever make."

Kiba narrowed his eyes at the figure in front of him even more. This was not a joke anymore. If this guy could detect the faint movements of the ANBU level ninja behind him, then he was a define threat to the refugee group.

The figure snapped his fingers and both Kiba and Raidou braced for an ambush. However, multiple other hooded figures dropped down from the trees in a circle around the original, each carrying an unconscious form that they laid on the ground. Another snap of the fingers and all the new arrivals disappeared in a gust of white smoke.

Kiba was staring at the unexpected forms laying in the field and almost missed the next statement. "And I'll leave you with this. Do not seek me out or you will perish. My reasons for saving these people are my own and my debt has been repaid as best it could be to my friend. As for intel, yours is the only group that I detected that was able to successfully flee from your village. Therefore, you are all that remains of Konoha."

Then another voice appeared from behind Kiba as the figure in the field burst into smoke. "I trust that our business is done here. Farewell Inuzuka." Kiba spun around only to see the retreating form of the cloaked figure. Raidou was checking on the unconscious forms in the field, but Kiba was puzzled by something else. He had caught the scent of the figure as he left, but it was strange. It smelt familiar, like a scent that he knew a long time ago, but he couldn't place it. Questions filled his head as he stared into the darkness of the woods.

* * *

Just to a few notes. If you haven't noticed by now, I'll be using many of the lesser known Naruto characters in my story, Kiba and Tenten obviously being the exceptions. These are the characters that are mentioned and/or seen a couple of times throughout the cannon, though many may not have noticed them since they are referenced very few times. I felt that they needed more face time than that. Haven't made any OCs yet. Naruto will be getting more face time soon, don't worry about that. Also this is occurring thirteen years after the Sasuke retrieval arc. Therefore current ninja ages are as follows:

Everyone's Favorite Blond Haired Mystery Ninja - 25 1/2  
Inuzuka Kiba - 26  
Tenten - 27  
Hyuuga Hanabi - 21  
Namiashi Raidou - 45  
Yamashiro Aoba - 43  
Tatami Iwashi - 36  
Hagane Kotetsu - 37  
Kamizuki Izumo - 37


	4. Ch 3 Ghosts

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Naruto.

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Ghosts**

The morning sun had yet to rise, but the ruins of Konoha were still busy with activity nonetheless. Rock and sound nin rushed to form ranks was their teams were being called for duty.

"Alright lads!" bellowed the Tsuchikage as he stood before his troops. "It's come to my attention that there are some feeble leaf escapees in the countryside! Now I may not be as springy as I once was, but I bet that everyone here would enjoy a nice little warm-up before breakfast!"

The older generation of rock forces hollered back in approval at the chance to finish their blood feud with Konoha from all those years ago. The younger generation was a little more restrained; however, they had grown up listening to the stories of the suffering losses that Konoha had handed them. The bitterness of defeat had still passed to their generation.

"Sound! We shall accompany Iwa during their hunt and provide support as needed," order Kabuto as he stood next to the Tsuchikage. With the lost of Orochimaru and the heavy losses suffered during the course of the war, Kabuto knew that he needed to gain the support of at least one of the shinobi world powerhouses; lest the other nations decide to turn their eyes on the weakened Sound in their conquest-high state. If that meant simply stream-rolling over a couple of weakened ninja and a bunch of useless civilians, then all the easier for Kabuto's plans to win support.

"We know the general direction of the fleeing cowards," continued the Tsuchikage. After the few surviving members of the pursuit team returned with their humiliating defeat and reported which direction the refugees were in, the Tsuichikage crushed them himself. He did not like weakness in his ranks. "Divide into teams and fan out! With such a large refugee gathering, they couldn't have gotten far." A smirk flashed across his wizened old face, ""Let the hunt begin…"

* * *

A familiar blond nin traveled through the forest as the sky burned a blood-red. Inhuman screams and cries resounded off the trees and haunted the ears of those who ventured. However, it was impossible to locate their owners. As the blond raced across the tree line, he searched desperately for the sources of the voices that tore at his ears. Alas, his eyes only caught the briefest hints of movements; a flicker of a shadow behind a tree, a rustle of some ground foliage, a new ripple in a puddle of water. One thing was certain however, he was being lead somewhere. On either side of him, a shadow traveled just out of visual sight in the darkening woods, but he knew they were there. A change in direction seemed to cause the land to curve with his movements and he felt the end direction to be the same.

The growls, the screams, the sounds were closer now. The blond had to fight to keep his bearing as the volume was quickly becoming unbearable. A screech joined the other cries sharply and without warning, he slipped off his tree path and landed harshly on the unforgiving earthen ground. He lay there for a few seconds, his ears ringing with pain; yet, his body was screaming to keep moving.

Whatever forces were around him had completely encircled him. Trees swayed and underbrush rustled but nothing came into view. The growls and snarls were rising in volume, louder and louder. The blond pushed himself to his feet and began to run again. Thorns and stickers torn at him as he cut through the woods and the shifting of the trees behind let him know the pursuit was not over.

He attempted to mold his charka for an attack, a clone, a distraction, anything! But nothing happened. His strength was locked, unable to support him. The creatures were closer now. He could feel their hot breathe, hear the claws cut through the tree bark, the ground hiss as they ran. An unseen tree root, a rapid decline, the blond rolled to avoid the trees as he fell.

The ground trembled. He lifted his head from his undignified, collapsed position. A gigantic crimson claw crushed the tall oaks before him. Several smaller demon foxes burst from the tree line and surrounded him, but he barely noticed them. Instead the blond stared deeply and unwaveringly into the scarlet red, hungry eyes of the Kyuubi.

The glare seemed to overwhelm him and encompass his entire being. A deafening roar erupted from the fox's mouth as it bared its fangs. Steadfast the blond remained. He would not show the beast any fear. Not even as the jaws of the creature swallowed him whole and he fought the urge to scream in pain as fox fire burned at his soul. All he heard was a dark whisper, "_**One more year fleshling…**_" Then the no more as the flames burst into white light.

Naruto shot up in a cold sweat with a kunai already in hand, facing down an unseen enemy. His eye searched wildly for any signs of intrusion into his small camp, any lingering danger. There was nothing. It was just another nightmare; one that was occurring far more often than he liked. Naruto knew what it meant though, how could he not? The second coming of the Kyuubi as fast approaching.

About four years ago he luck had run out. The Akatsuki had managed to track him down. He had grown by leaps and bounds during his currently nine year banishment by learning from whomever or whatever he could find that was willing to teach him anything, but it was not enough. Against six S-ranked missing nin, Naruto never stood a chance by himself. He was captured and dragged off to their secret base of operations to have the Kyuubi ripped from the imprisonment seal and his life forfeit from the process.

Naruto had awoken during the extraction process; he could literally feel the fox being ripped from his very soul. His screams of pain and anguish fell on the deaf ears of the Akatsuki, who were minutes away from accomplishing the final step of their plans. The relatively small number of people that he actually cared about rushed to the forefront of his thoughts: Ero-senin, Baa-chan, Iruka-sensei, Teuchi-san, Ayame-chan, and sometimes even Kakashi-sensei. The faces of some of the people he met during his travels came to mind as well, but since he never stayed in one spot for long, their images were not as strong.

As the extraction neared completion, his life began to flash in front of his eyes. He was forced to watch once again all the jeers and taunts of his time in Konoha, his best friend's attempt to kill him, his banishment from Fire Country, his struggles to survive on his own for so many years; it seemed as all that his mind could remember in its final moments were the worst memories of his pitiful life. The memories that he thought he had locked away in the back recesses of his mind were flooding back to the forefront.

Suddenly the pain of the separation increased tenfold and Naruto could not find the strength to yell out any more as his mouth was stuck in a silent scream. Just before he passed out in what he believed to be the final time ever, he thought he heard a shout within his head, "_**Finally an opening!**_" Then no more as the darkness took him.

It was two days later that his eyes slowly opened within the dark cavern, there was no sign of the Akatsuki, the stone golem that was extracting the Kyuubi, nothing. He head spun as he attempted to sit up and he immediately vomited. As he gathered his bearings, he slowly attempted to stand only to fall flat on his face. The pain that coursed throughout his body shook away any fantasies that he was dead. He lay there for a couple of minutes as he recovered his strength and his senses, not willing to stand again so quickly if he was just going to get dizzy and fall over.

He felt empty but at the same time freer than ever before. There was something missing from his being, but instead of feeling drained, he felt liberated. Then it hit them. The dark whispers that had constantly plagued his thoughts for the last few years were gone. The malicious intent that attempted to overwhelm him was missing. The Kyuubi was gone. Naruto laughed in bitter relief. The world was going to be destroyed because the Akatsuki had finally gotten the Kyuubi, but he had never felt better in his life!

As his eyes became adjusted to the poor lighting, and he noticed two dark lumps lying off to the side. He slowly crawled his way over before he pushed himself back from the smell. These two were apparently the two members of Akatsuki there were actually present during the extraction process. Both members were dead with horrible burns covering their bodies. Naruto couldn't even make out any facial features or distinguishing marks to identify them by.

As he looked them over for anything of use or anything to figure out which members they were, he noticed two unblemished silver rings still on what he could only imagine used to be their hands. He examined one of the rings. Instead of a precious stone on top, like most rings he had seen, it had a flat crimson head with a strange black symbol. Figuring these guys weren't going to need them anytime soon; Naruto pocketed both rings and left the cave.

The outside world was still unchanged. Naruto was almost blinded by the bright sunlight that greeted him as he emerged. '_That's strange_,' he thought. '_I figured Akatsuki would have been raining destruction upon the world by now_.' It was only several days later that Naruto managed to find a town and after stealing from fresh clothes that someone had left out to dry, he made his way to the local tavern. There was nothing new. No stories of mass destruction and chaos, no Akatsuki acts of terrorism, nothing. This confused Naruto even more. It was another few days before the dreams started.

They were always the same in nature. Naruto would find himself in destroyed town, isolated forest, or dark cavern. Small demons would chase him; dead bodies would litter the ground, always fire and destruction in every direction, the sky a blood red. And at the end, the Kyuubi would always be there to kill him and drop another cryptic message. After realizing he wasn't going crazy, Naruto was able to piece it together.

During the end of the extraction process, the Kyuubi had found a way to escape to the void between realms, between the world of humans and the world of demons. There he was binding his time and regaining his full strength. However, the world was marked; when the Kyuubi was fully recovered, he would return to finish what he had started all those years ago.

Naruto had attempted to inform political rulers and village heads about this knowledge, but no one would listen. Not that he could blame them. One teenage kid running around declaring the destruction of the world is nigh? Right, who wouldn't think he was crazy? People only believed what their eyes told them. By the time they realized the truth, it would be too late. Naruto determined right then and there that it would be his mission to finish what the Yondaime had attempted to stop twenty one years ago. The beast had lived within him for so long; he couldn't help but feel as if it was his job to finish what was started so long ago. He would switch from being the jailor to the executioner.

He dove into his training with feverish abandon. Nothing was too hard or too challenging of an exercise for him to try. He would get stronger. He would find a way to put the Kyuubi down for good. The Kyuubi wouldn't let itself be sealed a second time and Naruto had no intention of sacrificing another to seal the beast. He would never place the same fate onto another that was shoved onto him. Even if it meant the world would end, he would not allow another to know the pain of bearing the taint of the Kyuubi.

This was a taint that he could still feel coursing through him at times when he slept or when he was exhausted from training. Residue essences of the Kyuubi were still coursing through his body even after it was gone. However, as much of a reminder of the curse that held him, Naruto somehow knew that this was the answer as well. The Kyuubi and Naruto were linked. He instinctively knew that the taint was as much of a gift as it was a curse. Only he could land the finishing blow and put an end to all of this once and for all. Only one who bore the same taint as the beast could finish it.

Most of the world he did not care about. For all he was concerned, the Kyuubi could burn it to the ground. However, there were scattered individuals throughout its lands that Naruto had befriended and formed strong bonds with. It would be for this reason he would fight. For this reason he would become the world's guardian against the Kyuubi; the silent protector, the vigilant sentinel, the last warden.

Shaking the last of his past memories from his head, Naruto returned to the present. His stomach growled and he was all out of ramen; further proof that this morning was not starting off well. Story of his life.

* * *

Kiba awoke from a restless sleep. It had taken him a long time to fall asleep after the strange encounter last night. They had gained a few more civilians and ninja to bolster their forces, Hinata's sister was even among them! That was a surprise that made him feel both relieved and pained at the same time. He believed that Hanabi already suspected that her sister and favorite cousin died in the assault, but he did not like the fact that it would probably land on his shoulders to confirm it. Still he vowed to silently watch over Hanabi as repentance for being unable to help Hinata when she needed him the most.

Raidou had inspected all the newcomers for any form of trap, abuse, or other sort of trauma; he found nothing. That had eased Kiba's suspicions that the stranger was hostile and just trying to play the part of a somewhat nice guy. The cold attitude he displayed was still leaving Kiba feeling a bit miffed. The thing that bothered him the most, however, was the scent!

It was the most irritating thing that plagued him. It was like a mixture of fox, toads, ink, and he what he believed to be the faint hint of ramen. He felt that he should have known that smell and that was what was driving him crazy! It was so random and filled with a unique combination that he was clawing at his head for forgetting who it belonged to. Something that disorganized should be sticking out at him like a cat in a dog kennel, but he couldn't remember a name or a face.

A commanding voice brought him out of his frustrations. "Everyone pack up and get ready to move. We'll be headed for the capital non-stop today," ordered Raidou.

"Genin! Come with me," added Aoba, who seemed to be lugging a gigantic bag filled with empty canteens. "We're going to fill up on water from the pond."

Kiba gathered up his few possessions, mostly just his weapon and supply pouches, and stood ready for the move. He decided it was probably better to talk before they started moving and sought out Hanabi.

"Hey," he lightly greeted.

The lavender eyed girl stared at him for a couple of seconds before recognition crossed her face, "Oh, you're that mutt that Hinata used to work with right?"

Aggravation at being referred to as a mutt flashed through his head and in a rare moment of foresight, he caged his mouth before it could start flinging back insults. He already had one female in this new pack angry at him and it would not do to spark up disagreement with another so soon. "Yeah, we used to work together as chunin."

"What happened to that dog that was always following you around?" questioned Hanabi.

Grief became apparent on his face. "Akamaru sacrificed himself to save me."

An awkward silence occurred after that. Hanabi hoped to change the atmosphere by asking, "I'm sorry for your lost. I'm also a bit hesitant to ask, but do you know what happened to my sister? Is she here?"

More torment rushed to Kiba's face. He barely managed a whisper, "Both Hinata and Neji fell during battle."

Hanabi knew that was always a possibility of war and being a ninja, but actually hearing that her sister and her cousin were gone hit her hard. She always had to act the part of a perfect little heiress in front of her father, the clan council, and everyone else who she interacted with. Hinata and Neji were the only ones that had truly become close to her and let her drop her act around them. And now they were gone.

It was bad enough when the clan elders forced Hinata and Neji to wed and become the next leaders of the clan. It was horrible when Hanabi found herself with the curse seal branded across her forehead and thrown into the branch family. However, she still couldn't find it in her heart to truly hate them. They were merely tools of the clan, just like herself. They had protested with vigor; they had fought to keep her unbranded. Neji knew the pains of the seal and Hinata never wanted it for her sister. It was only her sister's promises to continue to fight to rid the clan of the seal forever that had kept Hanabi from attacking the council. Though now her sister was gone.

They remained like that for several minutes. Kiba mourning the loss of Akamaru and Hanabi the lost of Hinata. As gloom seemed to overcome them, Kiba desperately attempted to change the conversion once again. "So about that guy who rescued you all?"

Hanabi fought back the tears that were threatening to fall. She would not break her mask for anyone but her sister and Neji. Thankful for his topic change, she got out, "There's not much to say. I was unconscious when he rescued me from the battleground. I attempted to overpower him when I awoke, but only managed to take down two clones before he knocked me out again. Then I awoke here with everyone else."

Warning bells and alarms went off in Kiba's head at the mention of clones, but he still couldn't could up with a name or form a face of the man. "Hmm, he mentioned that we were the last of Konoha after he dropped you all off here with us. He took off after that."

"Do you believe his words to be true?" questioned Hanabi.

"I don't know," answered Kiba. "He was strong, I know that much. He managed to get right up next to us without being detected and was completely one step ahead during our entire exchange. He's not an amateur or someone to be taken lightly, but I was hoping you could provide more information."

"I apologize for not being of more use," replied Hanabi sternly.

"Whoa, no need to get defensive there," countered Kiba as waved his hands defensively and backed up slightly. "I just get the feeling that I've met the guy somewhere before, but I'm drawing a blank. I'm going to go see if Raidou needs me to do anything before we head out."

As Kiba walked off to find the group leader, Hanabi was left to her own thoughts. She pulled the blanket over her head as she lay back down and cried silently for the loss of the only two people that made up her world.

* * *

Naruto had just finished his light breakfast of cooked salmon that he managed to gather from the nearby river. It was good, but nowhere near the heavenly taste of ramen. He would have to be sure to stock up on the stuff the next time he visited a town. He gathered his gear and placed it all back within his sealing scrolls before pulling out a rather large scroll. Within it was all the knowledge that he was able to gather from Konoha during its demise. That the secondary mission of his clones. To find and gather whatever family scrolls, bits of information, or Konoha specific technique scrolls that they could find.

This was one of the ways that Naruto learned how to become stronger and he would do whatever it took to become strong enough to defeat the Kyuubi. Whatever the clans had failed to burn before the assault, whatever was in the classified sections of the Konoha libraries, and whatever high-power skills weapon shop owners had failed to dispose of were now in this scroll. The primary reason he took this information was to get stronger; the secondary reason that helped him sleep at night was that he was keeping this information out the hands of Konoha's enemies. At least he was a former leaf nin himself.

He knew that being this close to yesterday's previous battle would draw unwanted attention if he started practicing high level techniques. However, he wanted to at least see what he managed to gather. Opening the scroll, he viewed all the subsections of information. He had techniques and abilities from every major clan in Konoha and many of the stronger minor ones as well, not a bad haul. He knew most of them were probably family specific and he wouldn't have the means to use them entirely, but something was better than nothing. The library sections of the scroll housed many classified village secrets and history, so he was very curious as to what was written there. Before he could view anymore titles, he felt at least a hundred charka signatures closing in on his position.

'_Great_,' he mentally complained. '_Must be karma for taking all the information in this scroll_.' Naruto resealed the large scroll into a smaller one and leapt into the trees, drawing his hood back over his head. Maybe they would just past him by and he could be on his way. Naruto forgot such thinking always ensured the opposite.

Several rock jounin paused as they neared Naruto's position. They seemed to look around for a bit before one of them commented off-handedly, "Huh, I thought someone was there, but I guess it was just a bunch of birds."

Naruto knew that he had been spotted, but decided to have some fun before things got ugly. Using his best intimation, he chirped, "Chirp, chirp, chirp."

Catching on, another rock jounin spoke up, "No, I think that all the birds have migrated by now. I think that it was probably just a bunch of baby cubs."

Naruto managed to growl out, "Grr, grr, grrrr."

Another rock jounin countered, "I don't believe that bears are native to this part of the woods. It was probably one of those rare yellow looking flightless birds. What are they called again? Oh, yeah chocobos!"

Naruto seemed to face fault with a '_What the heck?_' kind of face under his hood. The rock jounin thought that they could almost hear the cogs in their target's head whizzing into overdrive as he struggled to figure out what kind of sound a chocobo makes. They grinned menacingly as they drew kunai knives. Suddenly a "Kweh, kweh, kweeeh!" rang out.

The original jounin sheathed his kunai and said, "Oh, I guess it was just a chocobo after all." The other rock jounin nodded in agreement and prepared to continue on their way.

Naruto mentally sighed with relief as he closed his eyes and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Opening his eyes, he paled at the sight of five Earth Dragon Missiles closing in rapidly on his position. He managed an, "Oh, shit," before he performed a quick shunshin into another tree.

"Seriously! How gullible did you think we were!" demanded the original rock jounin.

"To be honest," started Naruto, "I thought that I had you all for a second there. Iwa isn't exactly known for its scholars." He dodged a hail of kunai and shuriken as he now faced down two teams of furious rock nin. "I heard their accuracy is pretty sub-par as well." The rock nin lunged at him.

Naruto slipped into his favorite Taijutsu stance and blocked the punch meant for his head before grasping the attacking nin behind the head and smashing his head on his raised knee then delivering a vicious elbow to the nin's back as he doubled over. Backpedaling, Naruto evaded the next set of attacks. Seeing an opening he backhanded another nin away and dodging under a nasty haymaker, shot back up with a brutal uppercut.

Seeing that taijutsu wasn't getting them anywhere, the remaining nin jumped back and struck back with some ninjutsu. The once peaceful field was now filled with earth dragon missiles and rock spires; all of which Naruto was using his wind style to weave around and dodge without winding himself or receiving any damage, much to the ire of the aggressors.

They soon exhausted themselves and were breathing heavily as they tried to think of a way to bring the mysterious hooded shinobi down. He wasn't just some random missing-nin like they thought originally. This was a threat. "Oi, oi, oi," taunted Naruto. "Is that it? I thought you all were stronger than that! I barely even broke a sweat. Guess it's time for me to…" Naruto didn't finish that sentence as his jaw dropped at the sight of a colossal boulder flying over the tree line at breakneck speeds. The worst part was, it seemed to be heading towards him. "Holy crap!" he exclaimed in surprise as he jumped back and the ground exploded upon impact all around him.

"Who dares to mock Iwa in my presence?" demanded the Tsuchikage as he broke onto the battleground, flanked by his the majority of the Iwa forces.

"That'll be me," responded Naruto as he stood up from the rubble looking a little worse for wear. However, he failed to realize that his hood had fallen off his head during the impact.

"The Yondaime…" cursed the Tsuchikage. The Iwa forces behind him shifted uncomfortably in a mixture of reactions. The older generation fought their hearts and minds to not follow the' run-on-sight order' that had been beaten into them during the Third Great Shinobi War. The younger generation eyed the threat with a calculating eye as they had been taught that the Legendary Yellow Flash had perished a long time ago. "So the spirit of our greatest enemy chooses the day we are to stamp out the last of Konoha to make an appearance before me."

'_What the hell is he talking about?_' mentally questioned Naruto before he felt a breeze across his face and knew that his hood had fallen off. During his travels he had read loads of history book trying to find something about the Kyuubi that recent historians perhaps overlooked. Even an obscure reference to a forgotten skill might help. From this reading and the pictures in the books, Naruto noticed his striking resemblance to Konoha's Fourth Hokage.

This was a pleasant surprise to the young blond as he had always idolized the Fourth as the best and strongest kage to have ever lived. He hated the fact that the man chose him to be the vessel of the Kyuubi, but as a leader, no one better than the Fourth had ever lived. He had already learned the basics of one of the jutsus the man was famous for, the Rasengan. He had taken up the art of fuinjutsu as well, and while he was no expert yet, he could boast knowing a wide array of seals. However, the third specialty of the Fourth escaped his ability to learn, The Hiraishin no Jutsu.

Back to the matter at hand, Naruto decided to play it up. "Scared? You should be. Especially after attacking my home village."

Coming out of his stupor, the Tsuchikage shook his head. "No. This cannot be! Be gone specter!" He performed a mass wide genjutsu cancelation to try to confirm his beliefs.

Naruto saw his chance with a grin and took it. He may have not known the Hiraishin but that didn't mean he couldn't pretend he did. Tapping into his abnormally high charka reserves, he threw multiple three pronged kunai into the dazed crowd and preformed several shunshins to travel throughout the Iwa ranks. Rock ninja began to fall by the wayside. Naruto rushed back to his original spot after a while and attempted to hide his heavily breathing. The Hiraishin never seemed to wind the Fourth from all the references that he read and letting the enemy see him do so might destroy his act.

Panic rose throughout the Iwa ranks quickly as many ninjas took a few steps back in fright. Many of the older generation were frozen where they stood, certain that their end was near. Naruto smirked confidently.

The Tsuchikage fought to hide his shock. Something about that Hiraishin seemed off. First off it was too slow. The Tsuchikage managed to track the blond's movements throughout the entire move. Next he didn't appear next to where his kunai landed and there were too few of them to begin with. The technique wasn't adding up. This was not the Yondaime back from the grave. Just an impostor who was doing a surprisingly good job at scaring his forces senseless.

Kabuto chose this second to appear with his forces in tow. He took one look across the field and analyzed the situation perfectly. "Uzumaki," he cursed.

That confirmed the Tsuchikage's suspicions. He juggled the name around in his head. "Uzumaki, Uzumaki, wait, that's the name of the jinchuriki Konoha banished thirteen years ago."

"Exactly Tsuchikage," replied Kabuto. "He's been missing from the world ever since. Why he chose to show up now? I'm not sure. But he's too late to save the village that despised his very existence. He's infamous for his pranks, and judging from the looks on your forces, he struck quite the blow at them with this one."

Furious at the prankster before him, the Tsuchikage shouted out, "Listen up you whimpering schoolgirls! I'll deal with the imposter personally! You shall continue the pursuit of the Konoha filth and they had better all be dead by the time I finish up here." His forces where still hesitant to move. "NOW!" he bellowed out at them. Deciding that they might live a few more seconds trying to escape the Yondaime specter in front of them rather than their enraged leader, the Iwa forces cut a wide right around the blond and darted off into the woods.

Naruto made no move to stop them. The prospect of a kage level battle before him was much more inciting. Beside if he held the Tsuchikage here, then maybe the Konoha ninja had a shot at either fighting back or routing the pursuing forces. A stray rock nin glanced in his direction. Naruto couldn't help himself; he made a face and shouted, "Boo!" The poor rock chunin looked as if he had wet himself as he rushed away.

"Kabuto," added the Tsuchikage, "go with my forces. I will not need your help here."

Bowing, Kabuto replied, "As you wish, Tsuchikage." He figured that Naruto had gotten stronger over the years, but there was no way he could match a kage level ninja in a serious fight. Especially one that was infuriated at being made a fool of. He and his sound nin cut far left around Naruto.

Naruto casted aside his faded green cloak with one flick of his hand to reveal a dark orange and black combat uniform. As he tied a black headband with orange tips around his forehead to keep his unruly hair out of his eyes, he stated, "I guess that it's just you and me now."

The Tsuchikage had discarded his formal robes as well to reveal a brown combat uniform. "In just a few seconds boy," he started, "it'll be just me." Then without warning he unleashed streams of his charka and powered up from his dwarfen body to that of a titan. Muscles and power radiated off him in spades.

Naruto's eyes shot open at the unexpected transformation. The sight of the powerhouse barreling down on him granted him only the thought, '_Sweet mother kami!_' before the Tsuchikage's fist impacted with his jaw and he was sent flying through several trees. The Tsuchikage smirked, "Yup, I still got it."

Standing up from the pile of fallen trees, Naruto gripped his head in pain as he tried to shake off his daze. '_Where the hell did that come from?!_' he mentally shouted. He opened his eyes to be greeted by the sight of three rock golems slamming their fists down towards him with tremendous force. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," he muttered as the shadow of the fists darken his vision.

* * *

Kiba continued to ponder the identity of the hooded ninja as he found himself once again in the rear guard position. Suddenly an eruption of unleashed power snapped him out of his thoughts and he spun around. He wasn't the only one surprised. Aoba had risen up his sunglasses in disbelief, Iwashi had taken a few steps back in awe, and both Kotetsu's and Izumo's mouths had dropped open in shock.

Then the wind shifted and Kiba caught a scent. "We've got Iwa nin incoming!"

Hanabi activated her Byakugan and cursed. "There seems to be about half a battalion nearing our position." She strained her eyesight further. "There are a couple of sound teams behind them as well."

"This is not good," commented Aoba, his sunglasses back on his face. "This area is too open to defend properly."

"Genin!" demanded Raidou. "Get the refugees moving and protect them! The rest of you, we shall fight to the last."

"Sir," reported in Hanabi. "What about that large surge of charka just now?"

"With such a large Iwa force, it's probably their Tsuchikage," answered Raidou dejectedly. "I can't image anything else unleashing such a force that would be after us right now."

"But what chance do we stand against a kage?!" questioned Hanabi a bit taken back.

"We don't," responded Raidou. "I don't think we need to be too worried though. Chances are we won't survive all the normal shinobi troops before their kage reaches us."

"Your confidence is inspiring sir," shot back Hanabi.

"Don't worry Hanabi!" boasted Kiba as he approached. "I'll keep you safe. I owe Hinata that much."

"Great," started Hanabi sarcastically, "I feel so much better now."

"Hanabi, you're with me," provided Tenten as she walked up. "Inuzuka didn't even try to protect one of his friends during the fall of Konoha. I doubt he will be a reliable partner."

Hanabi shot Kiba a curious look before heading off with Tenten. Kiba sighed in rejection but didn't try to refute what Tenten said. He still felt terrible for leaving Lee behind but he didn't see any other option at the time, not that Lee had given him much say in the matter.

"Straighten up," said Raidou as he placed a hand on Kiba's shoulder. "The loss of Konoha was filled with sacrifices and tough choices. You can worry about how to fix them later. Right now, we need to fight to live."

* * *

Two of the golems lay shattered across the battlefield courtesy of Naruto's explosive notes. Dodging another bone-crushing swipe, Naruto jumped back and rebounding off a tree, attached another explosive note to the back of the third golem. He mouthed the word, "Boom," just as the fiery explosion engulfed the last golem.

"That wasn't so tough," commented Naruto as a resounding "Earth Release: Bedrock Coffin," was heard. Slabs of rock rose from the ground and came crashing down around the blond as he shunshined out of dodge. "Maybe I spoke too soon."

"Is this all you can do boy?" taunted the Tsuchikage. "Just dodge around like a blasted fly? I somehow expected more…"

He was greeted with a shout of "Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!"

"Pathetic," he chided as he nonchalantly raised several stone walls to counter the multiple wind blasts all around him. "Did you really think that wind can overcome an unshakeable mountain?"

He raised an eyebrow when he noticed the blond flying through more seals and delivering a "Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!" The eyebrow was further raised when the condensed airstream blast cut through his wall like it wasn't even there.

Leaping out of the way, he looked back at the Yondaime shadow and commented, "Now that was impressive. Not many wind users can cut through solid rock." He was shocked when the figure waved at him in response then burst into smoke. He twisted out of the way as Naruto dropped down from the sky with a mini-cyclone encompassing his fist.

Landing on the ground, Naruto dispelled his technique. "Damn, I thought I could hit him with that." The Tsuchikage was running through more hand seals before shouting, "Earth Release: Antlion Technique!" The ground around Naruto began to spiral into a large sink hole with the prankster right smack dab in the middle. He struggled to escape as he continued to sink deeper and deeper. Within seconds, all that could be seen were his fingertips before they too sank underground.

"And there ends the troublemaker," commented the Tsuchikage. The ground shook. "What the hell?!"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" came the shout as Naruto erupted from the fissure he caused. Without pause he summoned up a special sealed kunai of his and chucked it in the Tsuchikage's direction. Within seconds the kunai erupted into a hundred and flew dangerously at the rock leader.

The Tsuchikage dove out of the way only to see each and every single one of the kunai transform into a shadow clone and launch another kunai at him. He dodged them again only to get the same results. Busy with this new turn of events, he failed to see Naruto preparing his next attack. He twisted midair just in time to be greeted with Naruto driving an Odama Rasengan directly into his chest. His eyes shot open at the impact as the force drove him harshly into the ground.

The strength of the attack caused the Tsuchikage to revert back from his titan form to his dwarf form. He shakily rose back to his feet. Naruto was supporting himself on one knee and breathing heavily. If that last attack didn't settle things, then he was in some serious trouble. The Tsuchikage looked contemplative. "What did you say your name was again boy?"

Naruto stood undaunted, his eyes proud and fierce. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"To think that Konoha banished a ninja of your caliber," he said more to himself than to Naruto. "I will withdraw for now. I will not risk further injury and leave the Raikage unchecked in power during the territory division talks. However, Uzumaki Naruto, the next time our paths do cross, the outcome will be different. I will not be holding back to test your strength. That was a mistake in this battle."

With that, the Tsuchikage took his leave. Naruto waited a few more seconds to be sure that the rock leader returned in the direction of Konoha before he collapsed to the ground. "Damnit! How can I be strong enough to take down the Kyuubi if I can't even handle one old grandpa of a kage?!" He punched the ground to emphasize his frustrations.

Then he remembered the pursuing forces rushing towards the Konoha refugees. He may have disliked the village since his banishment, but he couldn't help but feel as though he may have provoked this attack to be a bit harsher on the Konoha refugees. He did just provoke the Iwa forces by acting like the Yondaime and then he just let the rock forces push past him unchecked. They may be even more brutal trying to harm the Yondaime's subjects instead of the man himself. It left a bad taste in his mouth as he felt a little responsible for this attack. Sighing he gathered himself and took off in their direction.

* * *

Things were not going well for the Konoha nin. They had managed to survive the initial clash, their makeshift traps absorbing the worst of it. The rock nin were hitting hard and strong, taking out most off the defensive forces; however they were only rendering the Konoha nin unconscious and several of them would look back with panicked expressions. Still the amount of resistance was fading quickly.

Things had started off well enough. Izumo had used one of his unique jutsus to blanket a wide area in a carpet of sticky syrup as Kotetsu charged at the enemy with a wicked looking, conch shell axe. The stuck rock nin were being batted around left and right as Kotetsu was laughing in success. He never saw the launched boulder that had knocked him unconscious. Izumo had been charging as well with an enlarged kunai sword and was hit by Kotetsu's unconscious form, knocking the pair onto the sticky syrup and immobilizing them.

Aoba opened up with a burst stream of fire that he bended around like a whip. He was busy fending off multiple enemies as Kiba and Iwashi were jumping in and out of the fray striking out at the preoccupied nin. Iwashi landed a punch on a heavy set jounin and was shocked when the blow was absorbed with the bigger nin's stomach. As he attempted to pull his arm out, the rock jounin picked him up by the cuff of his flak jacket and stared him down before knocking him unconscious.

Kiba covered Aoba as he took a second to catch his breath. His fang over fang was keeping the enemies at a distance as Aoba continued to launch fireball after fireball at the scrambling rock nin.

Tenten had pulled out another bo staff and was using it to manage against the multiple forces that attacked her. Hanabi was surrounded by rock nin, but they were hesitant to attack at close range due to her Byakugan and Juken strikes. Instead they were tiring her out with a continuous barrage of earth jutsus.

Raidou surveyed the battlefield as he fended off another nin. Most of his defensive team was lying unconscious. It puzzled him why Iwa was simply not killing them, but he would not look a gift horse in the mouth. He delivered a vicious right cross into a rock nin's face.

Kabuto appeared on scene but decided to merely observe the battle until he felt the Tsuchikage's approach. There was no need to waste his troops when the Iwa forces were so numerous to begin with, right? He felt a charka signature approaching but it wasn't the Tsuchikage. He was surprised to see Naruto burst on to the scene.

The Iwa forces halted their attacks immediately. The rock jounin holding the unconscious form of Iwashi dropped the man and backed away in fright. Naruto managed a wicked smile. "It seems I caused your leader to return to Konoha. You all might want to follow his lead." To emphasize his point, Naruto held up another set of three pronged kunai. This was the reason the Iwa nin left the Konoha nin unconscious instead of dead. If the Yondaime shadow appeared then without a bargaining tool, their lives were forfeit. If their Tsuchikage appeared then it would be a simple manner to finish the job. Needless to say the rock nin bolted.

Kabuto raised an eyebrow in curiosity before he signaled his men to return to Konoha as well. '_Naruto stood up to a kage_,' he pondered. '_This may perhaps change things_.' Kabuto was interested to return and hear the story from the Tsuchikage before making any further plans.

Satisfied in driving the Iwa forces away and his task done, Naruto turned to the Konoha nin to say a few words before he left. He was interrupted.

"The Yondaime…" whispered Aoba in shock as he raised his sunglasses to get a better view. The still conscious Konoha nin were staring at him in awe and wonder at this revelation.

Naruto rolled his eyes. '_Not again…_'


	5. Ch 4 Reunions

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other references I might make.

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Reunions**

Naruto mulled over his options: he could either pretend to be the ghost of the Yondaime once again or he could create another persona for himself; either play it up and gather as much attention as possible or play it down and try to damage control it as much as possible. On one hand he had undeserved attention and praise and on the other, it was back to being as reclusive as possible. Tough call.

Raidou was observing the figure before him with a calculating eye. It was twenty five years since he last saw the Yondaime alive and in the flesh. Twenty five years since the Kyuubi had attacked. Twenty five years since the Fourth had died to protect Konoha. Yet now here the legend stood before him, looking as if he had not aged a single day in all that time.

Aoba was still taking it all in. He had been a chunin awaiting his jounin promotion twenty five years ago. It was he who had burst into the Hokage office with the dreaded news that the Kyuubi was attacking. He had always felt awful that the last thing he had said to the man was "Sir, the beast! The Kyuubi! It's on its way here!" He had seen the Fourth's saddened expression the moment the news was delivered firsthand.

Kiba had heard of the legend of the Fourth and couldn't for the life of him imagine why the man was standing before the pack. He had always been taught that the man died gallantly to defeat the Kyuubi and restore peace to the village. What would a dead man want with them? Deliverance to a safe haven in which to rebuild a new Konoha? Or vengeance for failing to protect the very village that he had sacrificed everything for?

Tenten stared at the blond haired wonder. She was torn about how she should feel. This was the hero of Konoha. With him around everything would probably turn out fine and they would be safe. Especially after the way he stuck fear into the hearts of all the attacking forces with a strange looking kunai. However, why did he choose now to appear? If he was going to show, then it would have been much better for he to emerge during yesterday's battle. Maybe then Konoha could have been saved. Maybe her friends could have been saved. Maybe Lee wouldn't have had to die so that she could live.

Despite being pinned down by his unconscious friend, Izumo managed to twist around enough from the sticky syrup jutsu in order to get a better view of the Yondaime. He had been in the Academy back then and had only seen the man once or twice before during speeches to his class. Seeing the man who defeated the Kyuubi again filled him with reassurance that everything was going to okay now.

Hanabi had heard about the Yondaime's name mentioned a few times from her father. The legend appeared to be the only non-Hyuuga that Hiashi held in high regard. That alone made the name memorable to her. The Hyuuga clan was the elite clan of Konoha. If someone from outside the clan had managed to win the respect of the clan head, then that individual must have been an incredible person. Still, as she judged the blond in front of her, the man had won her father's respect, not hers. She would see for herself what her father had been impressed by.

Naruto sighed to himself. While pretending to be his hero was fun against the rock nin, for some reason it just didn't seem right to do the same with these leaf nin. Instead he straightened his cloak and greeted, "Yo."

That caused the few of the still conscious leaf nin to fault, a fact that pleased Naruto as he enjoyed making people lose their composure. Raidou recovered first. He immediately knelt before the blond. He started to talk, "Yondaime…"

"is dead," finished Naruto abruptly as he was going to dismiss any false notions here and now. Raidou and Aoba both looked taken back and the other leaf nin looked equally stunned. "The Yondaime died twenty five years ago against the Kyuubi. I am not him. Neither am I a specter or a ghost or a phantom. I assure you that I am quite alive. Stand up leaf nin. If you knew who I was, then you would be shocked at the fact that you ever knelt before me."

Raidou stood, rejudging the figure with a wary eye as he lightly fingered a kunai, "Then who are you?"

Naruto shrugged. "Hmm…guess that there's no use in hiding it anymore. With the numbers that Konoha has now, I really don't think that there's anything else that you all can do me. Enforcing my punishment for returning is probably beyond your ability as well."

Raidou didn't like the direction that this situation was starting to take. The enigma that rescued them from the rock nin was starting to sound more like a wolf in sheep's clothing. His right hand gripped a kunai tightly within his weapon pouch. The other leaf nin tensed as well, ready in case this took a turn for the worst. "And what punishment would that be?"

Naruto remained indifferent and calm despite the tensing Konoha nin. He waved off the question. "Ah come on, you know. It's the same punishment everywhere for people like me. People who were banished from their own village."

"Banishment?!" remarked Raidou with a slight surprise. The situation was really starting to go downhill now. If this was a banished leaf shinobi, then it was his job as a Konoha nin to kill the exile on-sight for returning to Fire Country. Though, the way the exile got all those battle-hardened rock nin to flee like fresh genin unnerved him. That reaction proved this shinobi was no pushover.

Add that to the fact that he really couldn't afford to lose shinobi trying to enforce a law for a destroyed village. Taking care of the Konoha refugees took priority over everything. Hopefully this exile wasn't looking for a fight; it had seemed that he looked ready to depart actually. This got Raidou thinking, '_This is a crazy idea, but we need all the help we can get. If this really is a former leaf nin, then maybe I can get him to help us in exchange for repealing his banishment_.'

While Raidou was trying to figure out how to offer his proposal, Kiba was also trying to figure this newcomer out. '_Banished, huh? He looks about the same age as me. I wonder if I knew the guy before his exile?_' He started going over a mental list of all the blonds that he knew when he caught the figure's scent again. His eyes widened. "You're the same guy that showed up last night!"

Naruto nodded slightly at the comment. "Yeah, that was me." He started to whirl a kunai lazily around his finger.

Still considering a possible attack, Tenten readied a ring of shuriken. "And what did you hope to gain by returning survivors of the attack? I'm not saying that I'm not grateful for the saving of more Konoha lives, but what are you playing at? Trying to win favor back into being a leaf nin?"

Naruto chuckled at that. "Ha…Ha…Ha…you think that I'm trying to win favor? That's rich!" His face returned to its leveled expression. "Why I hell would I do that? If I wanted to rejoin a ninja village then do you really think that I would choose a village that was just destroyed?"

Tenten remained silent. Luckily, Aoba regained his senses enough to steer the discussion back on course. "We both know that death is the punishment for returning from banishment without the Hokage's and the council's combined approval. However we seem to be lacking both at the moment." He paused for a moment before continuing. "For this reason, Raidou is the most senior among us and is our acting-leader. Knowing him as well as I do, I don't believe that he would decide to attempt to enforce your punishment right now as we lack sufficient manpower. It would be an unnecessary use of our resources."

"Unnecessary use," parroted Naruto. "Never thought that I would hear that. If the council was here, then you can bet that they would be calling for my death regardless of the amount of shinobi that they had."

Hanabi narrowed her eyes. "And why would they be doing that? What were you banished for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" teased Naruto as he sniggered at Hanabi's unamused expression. "Actually, I'm a bit surprised that dog-boy over there hasn't already figured it out. Or have you really forgotten me Inuzuka Kiba?"

Kiba's eyes shot open at the mention of his name. More surprise was apparent on the faces of the other Konoha nin as well. Hanabi, Tenten, and Aoba both looked at Kiba in confusion. Radiou refocused on the blond. Izumo remained stuck to the ground. "Wait," countered Kiba. "How do you know who I am?"

"Ah, did you really forget me Kiba?" Naruto mocked with false sadness. "I thought we were pals at the Academy. I mean we even graduated together." Kiba's went into a slight shock as he realized that there were only four blondes in his graduating class, two males and two females. And of the two males, only one of them actually became a genin. Naruto wasn't finished however, "Though I guess that it has been thirteen years since we last talked. Not to mention one your last memories of me is me kicking your butt at the chunin preliminaries. Yeah, I wouldn't like to remember my defeats either. Ringing any bells here Kiba?" He grinned at the look of shock on the dog-boy's face.

"Naruto," muttered Kiba. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Bingo," approved Naruto.

A couple of seconds pasted as the entire assembly remained stock still. A slight breeze swept across the field. Then, without warning, both Raidou and Aoba were upon Naruto with a kunai to either side of his neck. "The demon brat…" cursed Raidou. "You're right. I do regret kneeing thinking that you were the Yondaime. I can't believe that I was thinking about repealing your banishment."

Kiba, Tenten, Hanabi hadn't moved. They knew what Naruto held inside of him. They had been there when the council had made the announcement. However, they were less quick to act as they had not lived through the attack and their grudge against the jailor was not as deep. Still as Konoha nin, they positioned themselves to provide cover for Raidou and Aoba.

"And to think I thought we could be friends," joked Naruto still acting completely relaxed despite the life and death position he was in.

"Shut it demon," replied Aoba. "First you killed the Fourth and now you have the gall to appear before us like him."

"Looks like we shall be granting you your punishment after all Uzumaki," commented Raidou. Then both he and Aoba pressed their weapons into Naruto's neck. Naruto crumbled to the ground without a sound. "It is done."

Raidou bent down to examine the body when he suddenly heard a "Yeah, right…" and the body burst into smoke. He barely had a second to curse before the feeling of cold, hard steel graced his jugular and his right arm twisted sharply against his back.

Each of the conscious Konoha nin found themselves in the same predicament courtesy of a shadow clone. Naruto walked out from behind a tree. "You all are exhausted from fighting this war for the last few months. I'm not. Did you really think that I would let you kill me?" He dragged Raidou to his feet. "Do you know how easy it would be for me to simply finish you all off, track down the remaining refugees, and put an end to the village that tormented me all throughout my childhood?"

"So the demon will finally finish what it started," jeered Raidou. Naruto socked him in the gut.

"You know, I trying to be reasonable here," continued Naruto. "I merely stated how simple it would be. If I was really the Kyuubi in human form, then do you really think that I would bother talking? If I was really the Kyuubi, then why would I bother to stop those rock nin from killing all of you? If I was the Kyuubi, then you would have been dead a long time ago…" Naruto finished with the last comment more to himself as he recalled his firsthand knowledge of what the Kyuubi was capable of.

"Tsk, like I'd believe that," replied Raidou.

"Hmm…" Naruto looked contemplative. "What color was the Kyuubi's charka?" he asked after a while.

"Red," answered Aoba, not sure about this sudden question.

Naruto turned to Hanabi. "You there, Hyuuga-san, use your eyes and tell everyone what my charka looks like."

Hanabi was about to demand that Naruto not use her ability as a parlor trick, but was interrupted when she noticed Raidou give her a tense nod. She sighed and used her Byakugan to view Naruto's charka. She scoffed. "Is there any reason why you're asking me to do this?"

"The color please Hyuuga-san," pressed Naruto.

"Humph," grunted Hanabi, clearly not pleased at being ordered around like this. "This is stupid. It's blue, just like every other charka I've seen."

"Blue, huh," echoed Naruto. "Do you see any red at all?"

"No," finished Hanabi.

"Interesting," commented Naruto as he turned to Raidou once more. "My charka pathways are the same color as everyone else's, blue. The seal surrounding the Kyuubi contains all its red charka. This different color is completely visible to the Byakugan and any Hyuuga can see it. Yet Hyuuga-san only sees blue charka. You want to know why?"

Raidou was silent. Naruto continued, "It's because the Kyuubi is no longer sealed within me!"

More silence covered the field. Surprising, it was Izumo who broke it. "What do you mean?"

"Akatsuki," responded Naruto solemnly. "They captured me. They ripped the Kyuubi from its seal. The damn fox did something and I lost consciousness. When I came too, it was gone. Akatsuki was gone. I don't know if we've seen the last of them, but the Kyuubi is no longer within my body."

"And how do we know that this isn't all a trick?" questioned Aoba warily.

Naruto snapped his fingers and dismissed all his clones. "Guess you're just going to have to trust me." He was pleasantly surprised when none of the leaf nin made a move to attack again. They seemed to be thinking things over. '_It's a start_,' he thought. He walked over to Izumo and using a small water jutsu, negated the stickiness of the syrup. He extended a hand to help pull the nin back to his feet.

Izumo stared at the hand for few moments before hesitantly grabbing it and letting Naruto pull him to his feet. "See, I don't bite," laughed Naruto.

Raidou was staring intently at the ground. The Kyuubi had killed all of his friends, save for Aoba during the attack. It crushed his parent's house with them inside it. For years he let himself direct all the hate he had for the Kyuubi on Naruto because the boy housed the fox in his belly. He justified it because the fox was there. Yet now the Kyuubi was gone from the blond. Could he still direct his hate at someone whose only mistake was being born at the wrong time to bare the demon?

He glanced at the others. Similar thoughts seemed to be going through their heads. He glanced again at the blond. "Uzumaki," he finally stated. Naruto turned to look at him. "It will take time. This new knowledge is a lot to take it. Hatred, as misdirected as it is, is not easily changed. Honestly, I don't know if I will ever be able to bring myself to see you as a person and not as a demon container. Still, you did bring back to us survivors from the lost of Konoha and you saved us again from the rock nin. With Konoha in shambles, we are going to need every nin we can get in order to rebuild. I'm willing to let you become a Konoha nin again."

"Raidou!" countered Aoba. "I realize that he may have saved us a few times and claims to have removed the fox from himself, but do you really think it is wise to let him join us?"

"I'm for it," Kiba spoke up. "The Naruto I knew before his banishment was an amazing guy, despite his tendencies to be a moron, a clueless idiot, and a horrible ninja." He finished with a smirk. Naruto felt himself bristle at the joking insults.

"Thanks for the input Aoba and Kiba, but I've made my offer and I'm sticking to it," Raidou said. "We need strength to keep the last of Konoha safe and as acting-leader of a severely weakened group, I cannot be too picky about potential allies. So how about it Uzumaki?"

"No," refused Naruto flat out. "The Kyuubi may be gone, but there are still things that I must do. Things that only I can do. Besides, there is no reason for me to become a leaf nin again. There is nothing left to tie me to the village. Ero-senin, Baa-chan, Iruka-sensei, and Kakashi-sensei, they're all gone and with them any reason for me to return to the village."

"Alright then," concluded Raidou. "Perhaps that is for the best. Thinking about it, I can't imagine all the remaining shinobi and villagers to be so accepting. Heck, I'm a bit surprised at myself for letting it go so fast after your explanation. Heh, maybe it's got something to do with all the years that have pasted or maybe the grief of losing Konoha is overpowering it. Anyways, what will you do now?"

With a snap of his fingers, Naruto summoned up enough clones to carry all the unconscious shinobi. "First, I'm going to help you all regroup with your civilians. After that, I'm not really sure…"

* * *

The Tsuchikage sat alone in his darkened room as he brooded over the morning events. He had expected it to be a simple manner to track down the last of the Konoha vermin and eliminate them. Instead his forces ran into a Yondaime look-alike and became spooked to hell before getting their asses handed to them by a single shinobi. Then they didn't even accomplish the mission that he gave them! The fleeing Konoha populous was still alive.

He grunted in pain as he put a hand on his stomach. That was the other thing; this Uzumaki Naruto. He figured the man had to be a relatively strong shinobi to stand before Iwa and its kage with no fear in his eyes. But he had underestimated the blond. Uzumaki had lasted longer in the battle then he had expected and had winded him quite effectively. Then there was the matter of that final attack. The Odama Rasengan he had called it.

The Yondaime had prided himself on his damn Hiraishin and that blasted Rasengan technique. Uzumaki did not seem to actually know the Hiraishin, but to be able to use the Rasengan efficiently in battle alarmed the Tsuchikage. Also there were the physical similarities between the man and the Konoha Fourth. There had been no record of the Yondaime ever having a child, but there was just too much here for this matter to be overlooked. Apparently his spies in Konoha had failed to find this little factor to the equation.

Another sharp pain caused the Tsuchikage to flinch. Despite his attempts to appear unaffected by the battle, the fight took much out of the kage. He had been going quite near full power from the get-go due to his anger at the blond daring to scare his men with the image of the Yondaime. He had been bluffing about not holding back the next time. Furthermore, the big ball Rasengan packed more punch than the original Rasengan that he faced when he had fought the actual Yondaime on multiple occasions.

Uzumaki had power too be sure, but it was untrained, unfocused. That was probably the result of Konoha banishing the lad so long ago. He had trained himself from the ground up, and was unable to find a proper instructor willing and able to teach the boy how to effectively focus and control his charka. There was only so much one could learn from a scroll. Appropriate and proficient instruction was needed in order to fully master one's abilities. That was a factor that disturbed the Tsuchikage further. Untrained as he was, Uzumaki managed to last and find himself equal in raw power to a kage level ninja. If the boy managed to find proper instruction to better his techniques, then he had the potential to easily surpass the level of the current kages. This matter could not go unattended.

"Kurotsuchi!" he ordered. A short black haired kunoichi was instantly at his side. "I want you and Akatsuchi to perform some research for me."

"Yes, Tsuchikage," replied Kurotsuchi. "Is there anything in particular you wish us to find?"

The wizen old man grinned. "I need you two to search through the old Hokage's archives and find out anything about whether the Yondaime ever had a son."

"A a a son…" stuttered Kurotsuchi with no hidden amount of shock.

"Yes," responded the kage. "An encounter this morning has caused me to believe that our old reports on the matter were incorrect. I believe that the Yondaime has left a successor in this world. Your job is to confirm this suspicion."

"But if Konoha really had another yellow flash growing up within its borders, then wouldn't we have had to face him at some point during this war? I mean, if Konoha had that kind of power, then they should have used it to defend their village," asked Kurotsuchi.

The Tsuchikage shook his head. "Not if they had the boy banished."

Finally fully recovering from her shock, Kurotsuchi laughed at that notion. "Why would Konoha banish a descendant of their loved Yondaime? That doesn't make any sense."

"They would if the boy was a jinchuriki," added the kage.

"Jinchuriki," echoed Kurotsuchi. "That's ever less of a reason! A jinchuriki unleashing its power on the battlefield would have been a terror to our forces and a boon to Konoha!"

The elderly man shook his head yet again. "These damn tree-huggers have always prided themselves on ideas like 'doing the right thing' and 'working together.' A jinchuriki of their own creation brings shame to their beliefs. Also the Kyuubi destroyed much of their village before they sealed it. Would you be able to work with a jinchuriki that housed a demon that killed your family and friends?"

Kurotsuchi bite her lip. "Then you suspect this guy you met in the forest this morning is both the holder of the Kyuubi and the son of the Yondaime?"

"That is what you and Akatsuchi are going to find out," finished the Tsuchikage sagely.

"Yes sir," saluted back Kurotsuchi as she departed to locate her partner and begin work on this assignment.

'_I don't know why the lad decided to show up now_,' mentally thought the kage. '_However, the fact that we have never heard of a borderline kage-level ninja wandering the world troubles me. The blonde must be quite adapt at hiding his ability and presence. It seems that our intel network has become far too lax over the years as well_.' The Tsuchikage was about to get up when he was interrupted by a presence entering his room. "What are you doing here?"

Kabuto walked out from the shadows. "I apologize for my intrusion Tsuchikage; however, I was curious about your encounter with Uzumaki."

"That is none of your concern," snapped back the wizen old man.

"I merely wish to be of assistance in your efforts," replied Kabuto coolly. "The Sound is grateful for your help during the war and wishes to be of assistance in any post-war efforts of its allies."

"Humph," grunted the Tsuchikage. "What you mean to say is that without Orochimaru to lead you lot, you're trying to suck up to another power."

"You cut me to the quick, Tsuchikage," continued Kabuto. "Orochimaru himself was always curious about Uzumaki and I just wish to continue where he left off."

"Leave," demanded the dwarfen kage. "Dealing with snakes and their ilk always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. With the war near completion and your leader dead, I am terminating the alliance between Rock and Sound."

"Now let's not be so hasty here Tsuchikage," Kabuto pleaded. "I'm sure that we can come to some sort of arrangement that remains beneficial to both parties."

"There is nothing within Sound that I want, nor lack the capability of acquiring myself," finished the Tsuchikage. "The alliance between our two villages was shaky at best and I see no reason to continue it. Now leave before I decide to turn my sights on Sound next."

"As you wish," Kabuto muttered in an effort to save face. The new Sound leader turned and left. '_This is not going as I planned_,' he thought. '_Without support from the Tsuchikage, Sound is left without a strong power to protect it. Cloud has never really trusted us. Sand still hates us for killing their kage. Mist is too reclusive. And all the other villages are too small to really benefit us. This will require further planning._' Kabuto continued to debate the future of Sound as he walked through the hallway.

* * *

The remaining Konoha nin and Naruto found the refugees just a little ways up from the battlefield. A genin walked up to the group gripping two kunai knives in a reverse dagger hold. "Halt," he shaky demanded. He held up three fingers and continued, "Dog."

Kiba grinned at the countersign he came up with for the group for the day. He held back up two fingers and said, "Akamaru." Using both a verbal and a symbol countersign, the teams could better ensure who was friendly and who was not. The genin sighed in relief and led the group back to the refugees.

Naruto set down all the unconscious shinobi and tried to tune out all the whispered comments going through the crowd of civilians. He turned to Raidou. "Well, I wish you luck and I don't know if our paths will meet again, but…" He didn't get to finish as a body tackled him to the ground and wrapped him up in a fierce bear-hug. He hadn't felt any hostile intent at all and his mind had been on the earlier battle instead of focusing on those around him. He looked down at the figure.

"It's you. You came back! I could never forget your face!" exclaimed the figure with what sounded like relief and joy. That puzzled Naruto to no end. Who in Konoha was left that might be glad to see him again? The figure released Naruto from the hug enough to let him see. It was a middle aged, still fairly attractive brunette. She was looking at him with eyes filled with kindness and compassion.

"I'm sorry," replied Naruto. "But do I know you miss?"

The woman was so happy to him, that she forgave his forgetfulness. "It's me! It's Ayame!"

Now it was Naruto's turn for his eyes to go wide as recognition dawned on him. Teuchi and Ayame were probably the only two civilians in Konoha that had loved him despite knowing what he housed as a boy. This time he returned the hug. "Ayame-chan! How could I forget!"

"Well this is interesting," joked Kiba as he knelt down next to the pair. "You're around for just a few minutes and you're already flirting with the civilians Naruto. Guess you really have changed in the past couple of years." Kiba soon found himself buried in the ground due to a Headhunter jutsu courtesy of Naruto.

The pair stood back up and brushed the dirt off themselves. "Is Teuchi here as well Ayame? I wouldn't mind sticking around if I could get the chance to taste the world famous Ichiraku ramen again before I head out."

Ayame's happiness expression dropped and Naruto knew what she was going to say before the words even left her mouth. "Father never made it to the evacuation center. Iruka-kun brought me and our children to the shelter before he left to get father at the ramen bar. He never returned…"

For the second time, Naruto regretted not doing a sweep of the city during the attack and instead waiting until its end. "I'm sorry to hear that." He hugged Ayame again to show his support. "If there's anything I can do to help out, just tell me." Ayame just nodded silently. Then reviewing her words again, Naruto paused. Changing the subject he questioned, "Did you say 'Iruka-sensei' and 'our children' together in the same sentence?"

Wiping the tears threatening to fall from her eyes, Ayame managed another smile. "Yes. Iruka-kun and I married about two years after you were forced from the village. We have two lovely children, Natsu and Wendy. Natsu is eleven and about a year from finishing the Academy while Wendy is six and has been helping me in the Ichiraku kitchens."

"Well, I'd be damned…" whispered Naruto, "Never thought that Iruka-sensei would have the guts to propose. I teased him about it all the time after I found out about his crush on you." Ayame blushed at that.

"Mommy!" cried out a young girl with long, dark brown hair as she rushed to Ayame's side and hugged her leg.

"Wendy-chan, I'd like to introduce you to Naruto-chan." Naruto visibly winced at being referred to with a 'chan'. Kiba's head sniggered from its buried position in the ground. Tenten stomped on it and Kiba cried out in pain. Wendy blinked at the antics. Ayame didn't seem to notice. "He's a friend of the family and one of your father's best friends."

"Nice to meet you uncle Naruto!" greeted Wendy with a smile.

'_Uncle huh…_' mused Naruto silently with a smile on his face.

"He knew father?" questioned a young boy with reddish-brown hair as he walked next to Ayame.

"Yes Natsu-kun," answered Ayame. "Your father was his instructor during the Academy and they became friends there."

The young boy seemed to be sizing Naruto up with a calculating eye. "Fight me," he suddenly said. Naruto lazily lifted an eyebrow. "My father was a great and strong ninja. If you were his friend then you are probably just as good. Those sound bastards killed him and I need to get stronger to avenge him."

Naruto lightly knocked the boy on the head. Natsu gripped his head in surprise at the sudden strike. "Not if revenge is your goal. Trust me. I've seen firsthand what revenge can do to a person. It burns at their heart and turns them away from people that try to help them. Iruka-sensei would not want that for you. He'd want you to become strong to protect your mother and your sister, not to avenge him." Naruto smiled at the boy. "Leave that to me."

As the boy seemed to think about Naruto's words, Ayame spoke up again. "Iruka and I decided to name you their godfather."

Naruto paused in silence and shock. He wasn't the only one. The Konoha nin looked equally surprised. '_Well didn't see that coming_,' noted Aoba.

The blonde remained quiet for a couple of minutes. Suddenly he turned to Raidou and spoke up, "I've changed my mind. I won't turn my back on Iruka-sensei, not again. Make me a Konoha nin again or not, I don't really care. But I'm staying with you all until I can be sure that Ayame-chan and the rest of her family are safe." Raidou nodded in agreement.

Naruto summoned up a small rock stand and addressed the civilian populous. "Well I guess that I better reintroduce myself. I'm Uzumaki Naruto." He paused as the civilians took in that knowledge with a wide array of emotions, albeit mostly fear and shock. "Now before you all start calling for my death, let me say this. The Kyuubi is no longer within my stomach. During a painful process that I rather not talk about, the fox was returned to the demon world. Treat me how you wish, once again I don't really care, but I will be watching over the group. If you have any questions then talk to Raidou then about it. I'm going on patrol." With that Naruto darted off into the trees.

"Well at least that's one more ninja for the defenses," provided Raidou.

Aoba tapped his buddy on the shoulder. "Yeah, but now you've got to deal with smoothing it over with everyone."

"Huh?" questioned Raidou. He turned to meet the hundreds of pairs of questioning eyes of the civilian population. Only one word went through his mind, '_Crap_.'

* * *

After the unconscious Konoha nin were revived, filled in on the situation, and ultimately convinced to follow the decision by Raidou, the group continued towards the Fire Country capital. They managed to cover a good amount of distance and Raidou reasoned that they should be able to reach the capital by midday tomorrow. They settled in for the night and Naruto generated several kage bunshins to keep an eye out during the night. After that he shared a satisfying dinner with Ayame, Natsu, and Wendy before excusing himself from the group and heading a little ways out into the woods.

He pulled out his Konoha scroll, settled against a tree truck, and began to read about the various clan knowledge he had gathered. Just after learning about how vital the link between the Aburame and their insects was he felt a charka signature approaching his location. He wrapped back up the scroll and resealed it into his bag. He stood up and stretching lightly, he said, "You know, it's not polite to spy on people." Hanabi dropped down from a tree. "Ah Hyuuga-san, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Knock it off," voiced Hanabi sharply. "I can tell you're faking the respectful tone and that's annoying. Besides, the Hyuuga clan dies with me. I'm the last one and the family scrolls are lost to the war." She laughed to herself. "And to make matters worse, now there's no way to leave the damn branch family."

"That's unfortunate," provided Naruto. "Never really cared for the all the clan business myself, but it looks like the Hyuuga and the Inuzuka are the last two remaining noble Konoha clans left. Shame that the Hyuuga are going to die out."

"I'm not looking for your pity," reprimanded Hanabi tensely.

"Alright, whatever," replied Naruto uninterested. "That what you came out here for?"

"No," came the response. "As much as it pains me to feel indebted to another, I came to give you my thanks."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

Hanabi grumbled under her breath. "I just wanted to thank you for saving me from dying like a dog, unconscious in the streets of Konoha surrounded by enemies."

Naruto's eyes softened. "You're welcome then."

Turning to leave, Hanabi spoke up once more, "Hinata-neesan and Neji-kun have both mentioned you before in high regard. That leaves me inquisitive as to what they saw in you."

As he watched her leave, Naruto smiled at the thought that maybe not everyone hated him as much as he thought when he had been banished. After he was sure that Hanabi left, he pulled back out the scroll and flipped over to the high level jutsu theories.

Half an hour later, Naruto put the scroll away again. Hanabi's words about her sister and cousin respecting him where floating around in his head and the happiness he felt was making it hard to concentrate.

His elevated hearing, one of the beneficial side effects from the fox's power, picked up a light tune faintly echoing through the trees. Curious, Naruto crept through the woods towards the source. He came across Hanabi sitting at the end of a pond by herself, singing a saddening, heartfelt melody. Naruto turned to leave, but found that he didn't want to. Instead he just leaned back in the tree and listened. About twenty minutes later, Hanabi returned to the campsite; while Naruto just remained in the tree, thinking to himself.

* * *

The group gathered their gear quickly the next morning and continued towards the capital. Naruto had created more shadow clones to accompany each of the Konoha nin for additional manpower. While his clones focused on guard duty, he traveled next to Ayame, Natsu, and Wendy.

Wendy was a cute little girl that enjoyed giving people hugs. It took Naruto a couple of hugs to get used to the physical contact. Usually physical contact meant someone else was trying to kill him again and therefore hugs were completely foreign to him. He had to admit that they were a nice feeling though. It seemed that the girl was also fond of piggy back rides due to Iruka's loving parenting. Naruto didn't see a reason to refuse and therefore the girl was currently on his shoulders laughing and eating an apple he had given her.

Natsu seemed to have a more aggressive attitude than his sister. Naruto could see in the boy's eyes that he wanted to become stronger to protect his family so that he wouldn't lose another one of them. He had challenged Naruto to a sparring match before they departed in the morning and Naruto let him face one of his clones. The clone simply dodged all of the boy's attacks, countering with a light touch whenever the boy dropped his guard. Naruto could see the will of fire burning brightly in Iruka's son and promised to help train him a little.

Ayame was feeling better with Naruto around. After losing both her husband and her father in the same day, she had become extremely worried for her family and what they were going to do when they got to the capital. They had no money, no other family to rely on, nothing. Naruto's arrival was a godsend to her. With him around and stating that he wouldn't leave until they were back on their feet, she could barely contain the relief that she felt. From what she knew of the boy and the high regard that Iruka had carried for him, Ayame knew that she could rely on Naruto. She was also sure that both her husband and her father were smiling up in heaven at the sight that Naruto had come back.

As they approached the capital, one of his scouting clones dispelled itself and Naruto covered his grim expression before Ayame could notice it. "Wendy-chan, I'm going to put you down for a second okay."

"Ah," pouted Wendy. "But I like my piggy back ride."

As he set the girl down, Naruto continued, "I'll be back in a second. I just need to talk some grown up stuff with Raidou okay?"

"Okay!" she smiled at him.

Ayame addressed Naruto as he stood back up, "Did something happen?"

Naruto frowned slightly. "It appears that we are going to need to change our destination. I need to go talk with Raidou."

Ayame's eyes widened at the implications of Naruto's statement. "You don't mean…"

Naruto gave a grim nod before heading towards the front of the group. When he got there he asked Raidou to call for a halt. The leader did so and looked at Naruto awaiting an explanation. "Come with me." He turned towards Kiba and Hanabi. "You two as well."

The team of four hurried up the final stretch of hill that overlooked the capital to find faint black smoke rising from the buildings and a mix of Sound, Rock, Cloud, Rain, and Grass flags littering the towers. "Damnit!" cursed Kiba as he punched a tree. "What do we do now?!"

Hanabi observed the destroyed capital with her Byakugan. "This attack is a few days old. They probably struck both the capital and Konoha at the same time."

"Makes sense," commented Naruto. "Got any other ideas of where to go?"

Raidou shook his head. "No, the capital was it. Our former allies, Sand and Waterfall, have been less than receptive with us lately and I fear that they wouldn't grant us haven. And all the other big countries are banded against us right now. This isn't good."

"Looks like it gets worse. Get back!" shouted Naruto.

The team leapt back as a storm of kunai rained down on their former position. A squad of about five ninja appeared in front of them. Their apparent leader, a purple haired woman, had drawn her sword and had it pointed at them. However, instead of attacking further, she seemed to be studying them. "Raidou?" she suddenly questioned.

It took Raidou a few more seconds before he recognized the kunoichi in front of him. "Yuugao? Is that really you?"

She sighed in relief and sheathed her blade as the rest of her squad relaxed as well. "It's good to see you all well. How flies Konoha?"

"Gone," cursed Kiba again as he stared at the destroyed capital. "Sound and her allies wiped it out two days ago."

Yuugao sighed in depression. She had already suspected this but was hoping to hear otherwise. Naruto spoke up, "What's the status here?"

"Complete destruction," replied Yuugao. "The daimyo is dead and we are all that remain of the Twelve Ninja Guardians. We have failed our mission to protect him. We couldn't even manage to get any civilians out. All that's left of the capital is us and a small garrison of regular soldiers that we helped to retreat into the woods."

"We are the same," commented Raidou. "Konoha is left in ruins and we've only a light squad of ninja and about four hundred civilians left. We were hoping to flee to the capital."

"I guess that brings us to the question of what now, doesn't it?" added Yuugao.

The nine ninja on the hilltop remained silent for a couple of minutes before Naruto spoke up, "I think I might know a place we could go…"


End file.
